Max Verstappen hits out at FIA after winning chaotic F1 Australian GP

Max Verstappen has led a swathe of driver criticism of the decision-making at the Australian Grand Prix after the race was stopped three times because of incidents on track. The world champion dismissed it as a mess and accused the FIA, the governing body, of being responsible.

Verstappen won in Melbourne with a dominant display but only after three red-flag stoppages, chaos and confusion and the race finishing behind the safety car. The second red flag with four laps to go led to a standing restart from which there were multiple incidents, causing another stoppage and a further 30-minute delay.

“I am very happy to have won, but the race towards the end was a bit of a mess,” he said. “I just didn’t understand why we needed a red flag. It left a lot of drivers confused. If we would have had a safety car and then a normal rolling start we wouldn’t have had all these shunts and then you have a normal finish. So they created the problems themselves.

“We’ll talk about it, I think it left a lot of drivers confused about why we needed a red flag. We’ll talk in Baku.”

Questions were also raised as to whether the stoppages, which close the field up and are followed by dramatic standing starts, were being employed merely to improve the spectacle, with six drivers involved in incidents after the second restart.

George Russell (right) took an early lead but was forced to retire when his engine caught fire. Photograph: Simon Baker/EPA

“Nothing against them, but the people who make decisions don’t know what’s going on inside the car,” said McLaren’s Lando Norris. “The whole point of red-flagging ... it feels like it was just to put on a show. Someone does something stupid at turn one, locks up and your race is over because [the FIA] just wants to make the show more exciting.”

The Mercedes driver George Russell, who took the lead from Verstappen off the start but was then put at a disadvantage after the first red flag, was also critical of the FIA.

“I thought the red flag was totally unnecessary,” he said. “I don’t really know what’s going on with some of the decisions at the moment. We’re all trying to work together with the FIA to improve things but it’s seemingly a bit of a challenge.”