Would Lewis Hamilton have won the F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP without virtual safety car help?

One of the big questions many people had after Sunday’s Barcelona-Catalunya was would Lewis Hamilton still have won without the fortuitous intervention of a mid-race virtual safety car.

Hamilton secured a memorable first victory for Ferrari after an aggressive three-stop strategy from the Italian team paid off in Barcelona.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton also capitalised on the fortunate timing of a virtual safety car when Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin broke down at Turn 9 on lap 40.

The subsequent virtual safety car to recover Alonso’s car safely enabled Hamilton to make a cheap pit stop and save 10 seconds of race time. Crucially, Hamilton was also able to retain track position ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

Without the virtual safety car, Hamilton’s three-stopper would have seen him coming out behind the two Mercedes and needing to catch and pass both to secure the win.

Based on his rapid stint on medium tyres, and impressive final stint on hards, Hamilton appeared to have the sheer pace to pull off his famous maiden Ferrari win regardless, something Russell pointed out after finishing 20 seconds behind his former Mercedes team-mate.

“It did cost us a little bit,” Russell said of the virtual safety car. “I think Lewis, with the VSC, was always destined to come out ahead, to be honest. You know, he came out with a two-second gap.

“We probably lost a second, but he just had really great pace today. It was really impressive to see. Even in the first stint, at one point I was expecting to see Kimi make the move on Lewis and I was watching the TV screens and Lewis just seemed to have it covered.”

That view was shared by Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, who admitted allowing his drivers to battle for position cost them crucial time.

"Lewis was the quickest of us afterwards," Wolff told media including Crash.net on Sunday evening in Barcelona. "So, even if we would have come out in front of him, it would have been very tricky to hold him behind.”

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur was also convinced Hamilton would have won the race without the virtual safety car.

"We would have won the race, perhaps with a bit less," Vasseur told media including Crash.net.

"But we were also in a good situation with a fresh set of tyres at this stage. It was positive for us, but I don't want to do the calculation what would have been in the race with this or this. But I think we were already in a very good situation."