Finish behind the safety car: is this part of F1 or is there a solution?

The Italian Grand Prix finished behind the safety car to the dismay of many F1 fans around the world. The question is whether and what solution should be found for these types of finishes? We asked editors from the various editions of GPblog.

Rishi Wig - English edition of GPblog

Under no circumstances should “fan entertainment” be a considered element by the race directors. The core focus must be to find the optimum point between maximising safety and maximising competitive racing time. Any suggestions of bringing in a safety car or throwing out a red flag must be purely if the incident necessitates its existence. It will prevent indecision and caused by concern over “not providing fans a good show” (as we have seen in Abu Dhabi 2021 and Monza 2022). By applying this method specifically, farcical decisions can be prevented and fans will gradually grow to understand the reasoning behind certain decisions

Tim Kraaij - GPblog Netherlands

Although conservatives will say it's in the rules and it's 'fairer' if there is just a safety car finish, they are forgetting an important element: F1 is entertainment. Without fans, the sport would not exist and for those fans, it is incomprehensible that a race behind the safety car bleeds to death. You don't always have to listen to the fans, but nobody wants a finish like in Italy. The solution? A compulsory red flag if a safety car is needed within five laps of the end. If you still want to keep it fair, you can have a rolling start, although a standing start is more sensational.

Oliver Lewis - GPblog UK

No one wants the race to end under the safety car. But with the current rules it’s what’s right by the law. To red flag the race just for the sake of competition is just unfair to the driver who’s leading as the first corner will just become chaos and the potential losses outweigh the good, especially with incidents on restarts with the new budget cap era.

Simone Tommasi - GPblog Italy

It is never nice when a race ends behind the safety car. In any case, safety must come first, and therefore it would be impossible to completely eliminate the possibility of a safety car entry in the last laps of the race, especially if there is a tractor (or something similar) on the track as there was last Sunday. Perhaps a solution could be to decide that in the last laps of the race safety car situations are handled with a red flag, with a subsequent restart. That would be fairer, but very difficult to regulate. In any case, the race control must learn to handle situations like the one at Monza more quickly and adaptively.

Marcos Gil - GPblog Brazil

A race should never end behind the Safety Car. Is completely anti-climatic and sad. Considering the regulations regarding the fuel in F1, which rules out an overtime period (similar to Nascar), I believe the best way to avoid this from happening is every time the race has an incident that requires SC or VSC on the last five laps, the race is red-flagged and everyone goes back to pit lane while the track is cleared, in parc fermé regime. Once the track is cleared, everyone goes back to the grid and the race has a standing restart. Ironically, a similar protocol was used in Baku 2021 and we had some great final few laps.

Matt Gretton - GPblog UK

Ending a Grand Prix behind the safety car is never an ideal situation, but we just have to accept it. We shouldn't be implementing artificial things such as non-required red flags just to ensure the fans are thrilled. Everything should be kept as natural as possible. It's similar to shouting 'next goal wins' in the 85th minute of a football match when the away team are leading 0-3 just to ensure a tense finish. The same rules and regulations should be applied from lap one until the chequered flag regardless. Call me old school and boring, but sport must have true results.

Rubén Gómez - GPblog Spain

Races should never end under the safety car. The main reason is the thrill it gives, especially if the safety car comes out in the final laps, as in the Italian GP. The way to avoid this is to bring out a red flag. The damaged car is removed and the race restarts. The fairest way would be a flying start as if a safety car had come out.

Allan Matovu - GPblog Sweden

I believe many rules in F1 are overdue an overhaul and the Italian GP showed us that the penalty system and safety car procedures are outdated and could do with some refinement. I'm sure there are discussions that could be had behind the scenes to help improve consistency with how and when the safety car is deployed to avoid more races finishing behind them. This weekend has had more discussion about the penalties from qualifying and the finish behind the safety car than the racing itself and that shows the level of frustration from all parties.