Binotto says booing was aimed at the FIA at Monza on Sunday. Scuderia Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto believes the booing from fans at the finish of Sunday’s Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix was not aimed at winner Max Verstappen, but at the FIA, which took the decision to leave the safety car on track until the chequered flag after Daniel Ricciardo broke down at Monza on Sunday.
With five laps to go, Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren broke down after the second Lesmo, forcing the Australian to bring his MCL36 to a halt on the track. Race Direction then deployed a safety car and the Italian Grand Prix ended in slow motion behind the Safety Car.
At the finish, fans expressed their disappointment at not seeing more spectacle by booing the drivers, particularly Max Verstappen, but according to Mattia Binotto the booing was not aimed at the Dutchman.
“Booing a driver is never great. Max was the fastest driver on track and therefore deserved the win, so the booing was not good,” Binotto said after the Italian Grand Prix in a press briefing with the media.
“I think the booing from our Tifosi was more directed at the FIA. The Tifosi and the people who were there think that the safety car could have come in earlier, which would have allowed a few more laps for a bit more spectacle, for battles on the track,” added Mattia Binotto, adding that the FIA should do a better job in the future with the safety car.
The Ferrari boss is not alone in calling on the FIA to review the safety car procedure as his Red Bull counterpart Christian Horner – whose driver won Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix – also said the governing body should “review all the details” to ensure it does not happen again.
“We don’t want to win a race with a safety car. It’s something we’ve been talking about for many years that they should finish the race,” Horner said.
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“There was enough time to get this race going. We would have liked to win the race on the track, not behind the safety car. We share the disappointment of all the fans. This goes against the principles we discussed earlier, and the biggest losers were the fans. We must quickly seek to resolve this issue.”
“I think there was plenty of time to restart [the race]. So we have to go through all the details, but for me there was enough time. We had a car that was not in a barrier, but on the side of the track [Ricciardo’s].”
The FIA, for its part, denied that it had done anything wrong by leaving the safety car on track for so long and recalled that the procedures were validated by the teams at the start of the season.
“While every effort was made to quickly recover the No.3 car [Ricciardo] and resume the race, the situation developed and the stewards were unable to put the car in neutral and push it into the clearance lane,” the FIA said in a statement on Sunday evening.
“As the safety of the stewards is our only priority, and the incident was not significant enough to require a red flag, the race ended under Safety Car according to procedures agreed between the FIA and all competitors,
“The timing of the safety car period in a race has no bearing on this procedure.”
While Mattia Binotto and Christian Horner believe that the procedure needs to be reviewed, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff does not, saying that the FIA only followed the rules at Monza on Sunday.
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I didn’t know Max’s mother was working for the FIA.
I don’t think Red Bull or Max had anything to do with it, It appears the FIA are damed if they Do and damed if they don’t, Last year everybody complained that the safety car came in robbing Lewis of an Eighth world championship now people are complaining they wouldn’t bring it in, What is wrong with them this is just another moan moan moan.
Booing was not aimed at Max it was f1 supporters showing their anger at the F I A for another decision that ruined G P.
Incidentally if their decision was correct then It emphases that the Massi mess was in fact illegal.
Since only 5 laps were left, and Ricciardo’s car was not on track and in the path of the drivers, why was it necessary to retrieve the car immediately and screw up the race? They could have retrieved the stricken car AFTER the end of the race which was barely 5 minutes away.
I wonder why the FIA rules do not permit that. It would have avoided all the unpleasant controversy. Can someone explain it to me please!
This incident lovely clarifies the dilemma Masi faced in Abu Dhabi. Following the rules gives you Monza 2022. In ‘21 the teams EXPLICITLY told fia they did not want a finish under yellow. So Masi was stuck between two walls. His alternative (free the leading cars only and let them fight it out on track) was brilliant.
Of course Toto et all suddenly did not mind finishing under yellow and acted as if they never asked for ‘no finish under yellow, and did not pit LH.