FIA Bites Back at Max Verstappen Following Recent Aston Martin-Mercedes Safety Car Claims

Australian Grand Prix brought out many talking points about the 2022 season rules and regulations through the F1 drivers. Many drivers, including world champion Max Verstappen, were not happy with the pace of the safety car during the race.

The sport has been using Aston Martin safety cars since the start of the 2021 season and now the F1 has 2 different safety cars. The other one is, of course, the Mercedes AMG safety car. The Red Bull driver called the new safety cars has too slow on the straights.

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In response to his complaints about the speed of the safety cars, FIA put out a statement clarifying every doubt from the drivers regarding the safety cars. The governing body of the sport mentioned that the purpose of the safety car is to provide safety for the cars and the marshals on the track and not to go fast.

FIA Statement on @F1 Safety Car pic.twitter.com/5p0uHGo6mu

— FIA (@fia) April 14, 2022

The statement also mentioned that race control decides the speed of the safety car during races. It is not an inherent problem in the Aston Martin cars that they go slowly during the safety car. Verstappen had previously hinted that there might be some aero issue with the new safety cars.

Max Verstappen expresses his dissatisfaction with the Aston Martin Safety cars

Max had mentioned that due to the slow speed of the safety car, it becomes really hard for the cars following to maintain the temperature in their tires. He also stated the Aston Martin safety car drives like a turtle on the straights.

“There’s so little grip and also the safety car was driving so slow, it was like a turtle. Unbelievable. To drive 140 [km/h] on the back straight, there was not a damaged car, so I don’t understand why we have to drive so slowly. We have to investigate,” said Verstappen.

Formula One F1 – Australian Grand Prix – Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne, Australia – April 7, 2022, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen before practice REUTERS/Loren Elliott

“The Mercedes safety car is faster because of the extra aero, because this Aston Martin is really slow. It definitely needs more grip, because our tyres were stone cold. It’s pretty terrible the way we are driving behind the safety car at the moment,” said the world champion.

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It is indeed a very detailed and stern statement answering every doubt raised against FIA and the new safety cars. It would be interesting to see if Verstappen will have a response to the statement by FIA.

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