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Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto has criticised the FIA for its handling of the late Safety Car which robbed the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix of a racing finish.
Officials deployed the Safety Car so marshals could recover Daniel Ricciardo’s stricken McLaren from between the two Lesmos.
Stuck in gear, the MCL 36 couldn’t be pushed back into an opening, delaying the recovery as a crane truck had to be sent to clear the car.
Ricciardo stopped on track on Lap 46 but the 53-lap race did not resume, Max Verstappen claiming his fifth successive win of the season.
Charles Leclerc followed him across the line second ahead of George Russell, with Carlos Sainz finishing fourth in the second Ferrari.
While Binotto is satisfied that the deployment of the Safety Car was the correct call, he was critical of the way race control managed the field once that decision had been made.
“I don’t think it’s a matter of changing the rules. The rules have been discussed… especially after Abu Dhabi last year; they have been discussed with FIA, F1, and the teams,” Binotto said.
“And we came to conclusions of the current format is probably the right one to keep. So I don’t think it’s a matter of regulations today.
“A bit disappointed, or certainly disappointed for how long it took them to decide [to release cars ahead of the leader]. And that’s important.
“I’m not understanding why it took so long to release the cars between the Safety Car and the leader.
“I’m not saying the safety could be the right reason for it, because when you’re released, as a driver, you cannot go simply flat out around the track because there is a minimum lap time, which is set in the regulations.
“This minimum lap time is there to make sure that whenever they are running and driving, they’re doing it safely.
“So what we do not understand is, on the current regulations that we believe are right, why it took so long for them to decide.
“I think they simply need to do a better job, because the F1, the show.
“Max [Verstappen] was the fastest car and he was on new tyres, but generally speaking I think we should try to end the Safety Car as soon as possible and give more track time, race time, to all the drivers.
“So the disappointment of today [was] to see how long it took them,” he added.
“We believe in that respect they didn’t do a good job today and they need to do a better job in the future because that is not good for the F1.”
Binotto’s comments were supported in part by other team bosses, though none shared the Italian’s criticisms of the way the field was organised once the Safety Car was deployed.
“The race direction is going to be under critics but in this time they followed the rules,” Mercedes boss Toto Wolff told Sky Sports.
“Maybe they could have done it a lap earlier, or left George through, but at least they followed the rules and they accepted the race ended under Safety Car.”
The rules surrounding the use of the Safety Car were discussed following last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with all teams voting to retain the current set of regulations.
“Safety must always come first and the race director in the end just applied the rules that are in place, which is the right thing to do, even if it means you can’t restart the race,” McLaren Team Principal Andreas Seidl said.
“I think we should also be clear that obviously what happened last year in Abu Dhabi, there were a lot of discussions between the FIA, Formula 1, and all the teams involved in order to see how the rules could be modified in order to make sure that races, for example, never end under a Safety Car.
“But despite FIA and Formula 1 really pushing us all to find a solution, it comes down to us, to the teams, and pretty much to all teams not agreeing to any change.
“We couldn’t agree on any better solution which is then also still a fair solution in terms of the sporting outcome.
“That’s why I guess we simply have to accept that, unfortunately, situations like today can happen.
“Formula 1 and the FIA really tried hard to push in finding a solution,” he added.
“The teams are making proposals of how we could change the regulations in order to always end races under a green flag.
“Let’s say we only want solutions that are fair from the sporting side and not suddenly end up in jeopardy.
“That’s why we couldn’t agree on anything better than what we have in place.”
