Max Verstappen made a bizarre complaint about the lack of speed from the safety car used at last weekend's Australian Grand Prix, comparing it to a turtle.
The Red Bull star was joined by his Ferrari rival Charles Leclerc in making the same point about the green Aston Martin Vantage used at the race in Melbourne. It is one of two vehicles sharing safety car duties this season, the other being a Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series.
The pair's comments came after an incident in the race involving them – as the second safety car period came to an end, Leclerc understeered through a lack of grip heading into the final corner. It gave Verstappen a chance to snatch the lead, though it was not one he was able to take.
Asked after the Grand Prix about what had happened, Verstappen told The Race : "It's just that there's so little grip because the safety car was driving so slowly. It was like a turtle. Unbelievable. With that car, to drive 140km/h on the back straight where that was not a damaged car anymore, I don't understand why we have to drive so slowly.
"We have to investigate. For sure the Mercedes[-AMG GT Black Series] safety car is faster because of the extra aero. The Aston Martin is really slow. It definitely needs more grip, because our tyres were stone cold. We went into the last corner and I could see Charles understeering, so I'm like 'OK I'll back off a bit more and get a better line'. "But it's pretty terrible, the way we are driving behind the safety car at the moment."
Leclerc agreed, adding: "To be honest it always feels too slow in the car because with those Formula 1 cars, we have so much grip and it's very, very difficult, especially on the compound we were all on, which was the hards. I was struggling massively to put some temperature in them."
George Russell also weighed in on the debate, and took the opportunity to crack a joke about the Mercedes safety car having more pace. "We don't have the issue with the Mercedes-AMG safety car," he said. "On a serious note, the Mercedes-AMG is like five seconds, a lot quicker, than the Aston Martin safety car, which is pretty substantial."
The FIA certainly appears not to have taken any of the criticism as a joke – the governing body has issued a statement in which it defended the operation of the safety car. "The FIA would like to reiterate that the primary function of the FIA Formula 1 safety car is, of course, not outright speed, but the safety of the drivers, marshals and officials," it wrote.
"The safety car procedures take into account multiple objectives, depending upon the incident in question, including the requirement to 'bunch up. the field, negotiate and incident recovery or debris on track in a safe manner and adjust the pace depending on recovery activities that may be ongoing in a different part of the track.
"The speed of the safety car is therefore generally dictated by Race Control, and not limited by the capabilities of the safety cars, which are bespoke high-performance vehicles prepared by two of the world's top manufacturers, equipped to deal with changeable track conditions at all times and driven by a hugely experienced and capable driver and co-driver.
"The impact of the speed of the safety car on the performance of the cars following is a secondary consideration, as the impact is equal amongst all competitors who, as is always the case, are responsible for driving in a safe manner at all times according to the conditions of the car and the circuit."
