Fight Perez and Albon creates confusion in the game management

Of course, in a race characterised by failures and incidents, the safety car cannot be missed. FIA race director Michael Masi had his hands full with the season opener of Formula 1 at Spielberg. Masi does however indicate that the safety car was used longer than necessary by the race management. Central in that debate: Alexander Albon and Sergio Perez.

Just in the seconds between the end of the second and the beginning of the third safety car phase, Albon and Perez fought a duel for third place. The Red Bull driver tried to overtake Racing Point , just at that moment the safety car symbol was shown again.

Lots of discussion about the right order

"We had to look at the on-board images and all available information at the same time to see if the order of the cars was correct," says Masi to Motorsport-Total.com. This process took a bit of time, which made the safety car phase a little longer - exactly five laps (lap 55 to lap 60). "It's easier to do an extra lap, that's what happened."

When asked why the Safetycar was used three times on Sunday and the virtual safety car (VSC) not even once, the race director answers: "The VSC is one of the tools we have at our disposal. And so is the safety car."