Martin Brundle suggests how F1 can avoid damp squib Silverstone safety car repeat

Driver-turned-commentator Martin Brundle has suggested several ways that Formula 1 can act to avoid a repeat of the frustrating end to the British Grand Prix, where regulations denied a thrilling single-lap shoot-out. 

When Max Verstappen crashed at Silverstone with only a handful of laps remaining, it looked to be on a knife-edge as to whether the racing would get going again. 

However, with the lapped cars permitted to unlap themselves, the timing screen changed to show that the safety car would return to the pits at the end of the lap, setting up a final lap dash to the flag.

But this second message was revealed to be nothing more than a technical error, with the regulations mandating that the safety car must complete at least one further full lap after this message has been shown. 

With boos echoing in the grandstand and confusion that continued until the FIA explanation came later in the evening, Brundle suggested how a repeat can be sidestepped in the future via his Sky Sports F1 column.

“There are potential fixes,” Brundle writes. “In IndyCar, for example, if it's within the last 10 laps, instead of a wave-by the lapped cars are made to peel off into the pit lane and rejoin at the back of the field. Or we could simply have the lapped runners simply drop behind the pack.

“Or throw a red flag and have a standing restart in race order, although this takes a while. Instead, we prioritise runners who haven't been good enough, for whatever reason, on the day, instead of the leaders and most importantly the fans.”

Given the nature of the situation, there were immediate parallels to the 2021 Abu Dhabi season finale, which, generously, saw the regulations bent in order to allow a last lap shootout for world title honours between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. 

However, that came off the back of a season-long campaign to work to a ‘let them race’ principle, which created grey areas in the regulations, with the prime mission being to not end a race under the safety car, but also to be more lenient when judging wheel-to-wheel racing.

Although the situation at the weekend was far from ideal, it cannot be said that the rules were not followed implicitly.

Brundle added: “I used to have robust conversations with the very sadly departed Charlie Whiting about this, because it makes no sense, especially as the rules state that the safety car will recover to the pits on the lap following, allowing lapped runners through. Abu Dhabi 2021 anybody?”