Scuderia Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto has criticised the FIA for the way it managed the last few laps of today’s Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix at the Monza circuit. The race was completed behind the Safety Car due to Daniel Ricciardo having to stop his McLaren car on track as a result of a late power unit issue. This meant that the Safety Car was deployed on lap 48 of 53, but difficulties in recovering Daniel Ricciardo’s damaged McLaren from the side of track meant the Monza event could not be resumed for at least of couples of laps.
In addition to this, there was a lot of confusion when the Safety Car came out on track ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes car, instead of coming out in front of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull car as should have been the case. It was not until lap 51 that George Russell and the ten cars between the Safety Car and the Dutchman were released, which meant there no more time to make a restart.
Ferrari was in a clear pace disadvantage in the race and had hoped to take advantage of the late Safety Car intervention: the Maranello team called Charles Leclerc in to mount an used set of softs, which may have allowed him to attempt a pass on Max Verstappen for the race win in Monza, but Mattia Binotto explains that the Italian side’s missed opportunity was not the reason for his criticism.
“I think we could have finished the race differently. Finishing the race behind the Safety Car is never great. It’s not for us, but for F1 and the show and I think there was plenty of time for the FIA to act differently today.” – he explained.
The moment was similar to what happened in the controversial last race of the 2022 Formula One season , in Abu Dhabi last year, with the main difference that at the Yas Marina circuit, the race did continue for one final lap. But the Safety Car restart procedure was not completely correct by race director Michael Masi, who was then removed due to the criticism received from the media and Mercedes. Michael Masi was replaced by Niels Wittich for the Italian Grand Prix, while Eduardo Freitas also shares the role with Wittich.
Mattia Binotto feels Niels Wittich should have allowed the Mercedes of George Russell and the other cars ahead of Max Verstappen on the road to overtake the Safety Car before lap 51: “There was no reason not to release the cars between the Safety Car and the leader,” Binotto added. “If they are simply waiting for the safety [of the marshals recovering Ricciardo’s car], we know there is now a minimum lap time for the cars that are released, so it’s pretty safe to run on the track at all times. So to wait so much is simply wrong and not great for the sport. After Abu Dhabi last year we had long discussions of how to improve because the final objective and aim is to try to restart the race as soon as you can in a safe manner. And certainly today it could have happened. So the FIA changed a lot in that area, but still I think they need more experience and should do a better job because F1 deserves a better job in that respect.”
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In the end, Mattia Binotto pointed out that allowing the race to resume would not have affected the safety of the recovery process.
“I do not fully agree because in the regulations there is a minimum lap time that the drivers must respect, so they cannot simply go flat out around the track, they need to respect that lap time,” he said when asked if it would be dangerous to release the cars from behind the Safety Car. There was plenty of yellow flags and they are F1 drivers in the end, so I don’t think there is any risk. So, as we discussed after Abu Dhabi, we should speed up operations and today we didn’t.” – the Ferrari boss concluded.
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