Currently, the FIA is busy finalizing the findings from the investigation into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which saw Max Verstappen triumph at the expense of Lewis Hamilton. Since then, a split has arisen between those who felt the handling of the safety car procedure was unfair, and those who do not see a problem with it. Beat Zehnder, sporting director of Alfa Romeo, belongs to the latter group.
According to Zehnder, there was little wrong with Michael Masi’s decision to remove the stragglers between Verstappen and Hamilton. “From my point of view, not much went wrong in Abu Dhabi,” he says in conversation with Auto, Motor und Sport. “The only thing I didn’t quite understand was the early announcement that the lapped drivers were not allowed to overtake. He should have allowed that if the track conditions allowed it.”
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Red flag does not solve problems
The completion of the safety car procedure has been the subject of discussion more often than not. In the future, repetition should be prevented by deploying a red flag instead of the safety car, but Zehnder does not believe this would solve all the problems.
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In addition, the Swiss, who has been with the team since the Sauber era, thinks this could create an unfair situation. “If there was a red flag, you would put fresh tires in the hands of all the drivers. The question is: would that really be fairer?” he continued his explanation. In addition, in a safety car situation, there are drivers who benefit and drivers who lose places, according to Zehnder.
He is therefore not in favor of using red flags unless there is an emergency. “To stop the race just to create artificial tension, I don’t think much of that” the Swiss continued.
However, Zehnder also has a concrete suggestion for improving the safety car phases. Instead of letting the cars pass the lead pack for the lap back, the back-seat drivers should simply drop back to the end of the queue. This would allow the field to be sorted much faster before a restart.
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