Stewards see precarious moment during restart: 'Definitely not safe'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
On the warm-up lap of the first restart, F1 stewards said things were very close to going wrong. Williams driver Alexander Albon could no longer get control of the wheel and ended up with his car in the tyre pile. The Briton bounced back onto the track via the tyre pile. According to the stewards, this led to hair-raising moments at the back of the field.
Race control showed the red flag and the drivers were allowed into the pits. When the drivers were allowed back on track, Hamilton drove so slowly behind the safety car that it almost caused dangerous situations at the back of the field. The field shifted more due to Hamilton's soft driving, which was dangerous because the drivers on the second half of the grid needed to speed up precisely. Otherwise, they could not find the connection again.
Russell and his pace
In a statement, stewards bring out their concerns about this moment. "When George Russell and the cars behind caught up with the cars in front, they were met with
a significant speed delta between the two groups resulting in a situation where a number of cars had to take evasive action," the stewards said in an official statement. These stewards did little to address this incident during the race. They explained where the problem lay, according to them.
"This was not at all an ideal situation from a safety point of view. We do consider that part of the problem is the regulation that permits the lead car
to set the pace even when the restart is for a standing start from the pit lane (as opposed to a rolling start). This should perhaps be looked at in the future to see if this is appropriate for a restart of this nature."