The first recorded outing of a safety car in Formula One took place at the 1973 Canadian Grand Prix. There a yellow Porsche 914 was called into action following various incidents in treacherous weather conditions.

However, the use of the safety car created a controversy when the results were not classified for several hours following the chequered flag. Because the safety car driver had placed his car in front of the wrong competitor causing a number in the field to be incorrectly one lap down.

Formula One next experimented with safety cars at the 1992 British and French Grand Prix and it was decided to bring them in full time for the 1993 season.

 

 

 

Safety car controversy

Over the years there have been a number of safety car incidents that have left F1 fans and commentators alike screeching their heads. At the 2021 Belgium Grand Prix the shortest ever F1 race was recorded as the grid followed the safety car around for two laps before the race was red flagged on lap three – and not restarted.

Max Verstappen was declared the winner and half points were awarded. This caused the FIA to re-write the regulations on how points should be scored for shortened Grand Prix events.

Last year Red Bull and Max Verstappen were persistently breaking records almost week in and out, but this season a long standing record has been equaled which has stood since 2004. There has now been no safety car deployed since this year’s Spanish Grand Prix, nine race weekends ago and last time out was the first time there has never been a safety car at the Singapore Grand Prix.

The protocols for the use of the safety car have been refined over the years but no such revision explains this current drought. Fernando Alonso has a theory as to why this lack of safety cars is more prevalent today – and he doesn’t use the sacking of Logan Sargeant in his thinking.

Norris: “I hate everybody”

 

 

 

F1 ground effect cars crash less

Fernando believes the teams and drivers are now getting on top of the new ground effect F1 car designs and its become clear the cars are quicker when not driven to the absolute limit.

“These cars are not easy to drive, but I think the problem of these cars as well is to extract the 100%,” said the Spaniard. “So if you drive at 90%, sometimes you are faster because you don’t put the platform in an inconvenient angle or ride heights. You are not pushing the limits, and it’s where everything falls apart. So sometimes driving at 90% is fast.”

Of course if drivers are not pushing their cars to the absolute limit, this reduces the probability of less big mistakes ending up with cars in the wall and a safety car deployed.

Fernando reveals the performance of the current cars is at times bemusing, particularly when being pushed for that one fast lap during qualifying. “Baku was a very good example,” he added. “I was P15 in Q1, with Lando’s problem. If not I was starting 16th in the grand prix and out of Q1.

Ex-Alpine boss SLAMS French team “a disaster”

 

 

 

Alonso suggests Pirelli effect

“Seven minutes later, I put on another set of tyres, and I was P5 in Q2. I improved like 1.1 seconds. I was driving the same. I was braking at the same points. It was the same preparation in that lap, but I was able to improve 1.1 seconds. And some of us did the opposite: they were very fast in Q1 and very slow in Q2, and sometimes we don’t find explanations of when we are fast, when we are slow, and why.”

The Pirelli rubber this year has been a serious challenge for the F1 teams and drivers to understand and from one race weekend to another, certain drivers appear to excel on the tyres while others who were good last time out just use their way.

“If you go into the details and the unlimited number of sensors we have in the car, we can spot the small differences when the car is slow. We put the car in different attitudes that maybe the car is just not happy and this kind of thing,” Alonso continues.

“That’s why sometimes in the races, because we all drive at 90%, we have to take care of the tyres, the fuel economy, all these kind of things, we don’t see too many problems and we don’t see too many safety cars or accidents.”

Verstappen: Something big on the horizon

 

 

 

Degrading F1 tyres are here to stay

Drivers not pushing flat out all of the time has been a theme of the Pirelli era since the Italian manufacturer bailed F1 out last minute stepping into the breach as Bridgestone quit in 2010. Bridgestone were unhappy with the demands F1 was placing on their tyre production.

Up stepped Pirelli and began working to the brief of creating tyres which would degrade to make the processional races more interesting and that brief continues to this day. As engines became uber reliable and teams cut the number of DNF’s, the racing became more predictable and so creating degrading tyres added a factor of variability and interest back into F1.

Now the ground effect cars are playing their part in this tyre story as Alonso concludes:  “The cars are happier when you drive at that speed [less than flat out]. It’s a little bit against the instinct of the driver which is that you put a new tyre, you go to qualifying and you drive 110% if you can. But, with this car, sometimes it is something that you have to manage.”

Ground effect F1 car design is here to stay as the FIA’s next set of chassis design regulations coming in 2026 build on those introduced in 2022. 

Schumacher to Audi F1 after Bottas dispute 

 

 

 

‘No Perez at Red Bull in 2025’, says Marko

Its been the best of years and the worst of years in the F1 driver market. Firstly, Lewis Hamilton threw in the towel at Mercedes before the season started announcing his headline move to Ferrari. The expected domino effect to follow Hamilton’s dramatic  revelation failed to happen.

In fact the reverse of the domino effect occurred as Carlos Sainz painstakingly waited it out to see if a seat was to become available at another front running F1 team. The outgoing Ferrari man was courted by Sauber/Audi, Williams and by a last ditch pitch from Alpine’s Flavio Briatore before ultimately deciding against the two works outfits and opt for Williams under the James Vowels vision.

This was the first ever season in F1’s 75 years of competition when each team started the season with exactly the same drivers who completed the final race of last year. This will definitely not be the case next season given the number of junior drivers who have full time drives… READ MORE