The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was marred by two significant disruptions that would prove to be key for Max Verstappen’s second victory of the season.
The first was caused by Esteban Ocon, who stopped his car with an air consumption issue with his power unit at Turn 7 and had to be recovered.
This brought out the Virtual Safety Car, which effectively enabled Max Verstappen to go on to win the race as he could pit and run until the end of the race.
A second disruption came when Andrea Kimi Antonelli stopped in the same place, only this time, Race Control brought out the full Safety Car.
Marc Priestley questioned the decision when speaking on BBC Sport, while F1 fans were left confused by the choice to bring out the full Safety Car when speaking on the social media website X (formerly Twitter).
F1 fans think FIA made ‘baffling’ choice to deploy full Safety Car for Kimi Antonelli
Priestley felt the decision to bring out the Safety Car was ‘strange’ from Race Control considering how similar the scenarios were between Antonelli’s and Ocon.
“What a strange decision because that was an almost identical scenario to what we saw earlier on with Esteban Ocon which was a virtual safety car, then is turned into a full safety car. I really can’t get my head around why that is,” said Priestley.
Fans agreed, with one commenting: “Why was Ocon’s Haas parked in the grass alongside the track a VSC but when Antonelli’s Mercedes parked in the grass alongside the track it was a Safety Car?”
Another fan said: “Baffling decision when it’s in the exact same position as Ocon’s car but because you want a race so you bring out a safety car instead of a VSC.”
One fan felt the decision to bring out the full Safety Car negatively impacted Verstappen the most: “Of course they brought a full safety car instead of VSC when Max Verstappen is leading.”
Two other fans also questioned the usage of the VSC: “Why is that safety car instead of vsc… it’s in the exact same spot as Ocon basically. both Verstappen and Albon lose their advantages,” while another said: “Why a safety car instead of vsc when Antonelli stopped in the same place as Esteban?”
One fan also wrote: “The safety car SC instead of VSC virtual safety car of course is a shame.”
Why the full Safety Car was called instead of a Virtual Safety Car
The decision to bring out the full Safety Car instead of just a VSC was made by Race Control because of the need to bring a crane on to recover Antonelli’s car.
Antonelli had stopped a lot further ahead after Turn 7 than Ocon, which required a slightly different recovery procedure to get the car off the track.
The need to bring a crane on was also the reason for the full Safety Car, as this cannot be brought on under just a VSC.
It meant the race was neutralised for longer than anticipated, with it finally getting back underway with 10 laps left to run.
