Despite the TV highlights-worthy final laps of the Australian Grand Prix that brought an otherwise largely processional race to life, it’s fair to say Formula 1 didn’t cover itself in glory on Sunday evening in Melbourne.
After the second debris-triggered red flag of the day, some of the best drivers in the world lined up on the grid for the third time with two laps left on the counter.
When the lights went out they all appeared to do their best to make as big a mess as fast as possible.
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Sergio Perez and Pierre Gasly almost ran into each other and missed the first two corners altogether, diving over the gravel and grass and rejoining with varying levels of safety.
Perez just about managed it, but Gasly crunched teammate Esteban Ocon — who had only just escaped from a robust move put on him by Yuki Tsunoda — against the outside wall, putting both out of the race in a shower of carbon fibre.
Lance Stroll, eyeing a pass up to third place, speared deep into the gravel at turn 3.
Further back, Carlos Sainz collided with Fernando Alonso, spinning the Aston Martin backwards and into the barrier.
Logan Sargeant then clumsily rear-ended Nyck de Vries, ending both of their races in the turn 1 stones.
Unsurprisingly the race was suspended again almost immediately with 57 of 58 laps completed. Because it takes one lap for the drivers to leave pit lane for another restart, this was effectively the end of the grand prix. The final lap behind the safety car was just a formality to wave the chequered flag.
Theoretically a red flag is supposed to protect safety and prevent races from finishing behind the safety car, but ironically it delivered exactly the opposite when put into practice.
It’s an interesting case study for the push inside Formula 1 to more liberally suspend and restart races in the closing stages of grands prix to benefit the spectacle. On paper it makes sense, but is what we got on a crash-strewn evening in Melbourne the model the sport really wants to follow?
Emotional Sainz begs to overturn penalty | 00:50
WHY THE RACE WAS RED FLAGGED
While the final red flag was clearly needed after so many crashes, there was considerable post-race debate about whether the first two suspensions were really necessary.
The first was for Alex Albon’s high-speed crash at turn 6 after six laps, throwing gravel and debris onto the circuit. FIA race director Niels Wittich considered that the clean-up work would be too extensive to be conducted with cars circulating behind the safety car, and he suspended the race.
The second was called after Kevin Magnussen smacked his rear-right wheel against the wall exiting turn 2, breaking the rim and sending the tyre flying down the road on lap 52. Again Wittich decided a full red flag would be required owing to debris.
But several drivers found those calls surprising.
“I thought the [first] red flag was totally unnecessary,” Russell said. “There was obviously quite a bit of gravel on the track, but there was a clear racing line. We’ve seen it far worse in the past.”
Verstappen thought likewise about the second red flag.
“I think that could have been done with a virtual safety car or a safety car at worst.
“I think if you would have had a safety car and then just had 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 at the end of the day.
“I think it left a lot of drivers confused [about] why we needed a red flag.”
Even Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was mystified.
“The first two red flags we didn’t see coming,” Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said after Sunday’s race. “We just need to understand moving forward when are red flags being put out and what is a safety car or VSC. I think those incidents you could have applied either.”
But it was Lando Norris who said explicitly what many were thinking in the aftermath.
“It feels like it was just to put on a show,” he said.
Verstappen, Hamilton react to Aus finish | 00:41
THE PUSH TO SPICE UP THE SPECTACLE
The way Formula 1 ends races when there’s a disruption in the final laps has been the subject of debate since the infamous 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Nicholas Latifi crashed on lap 50 of 58, triggering a safety car period that should have taken the race to the chequered flag. But then race director Michael Masi ended the caution one lap earlier than the rules should have allowed, delivering a one-lap championship shootout.
Often lost in the ferocious debate about that decision is that he was attempting to meet a desire expressed by all teams to ensure races end under green-flag conditions rather than in the anticlimax of a formation finish.
That desire has remained undimmed, and it gained significant momentum after last year’s Italian Grand Prix, where Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren stopped on track with an oil leak on lap 45 of 53. The safety car was deployed, but it took longer than expected to recover the stricken car, and the race finished without a restart.
That opportunity was used to re-emphasise to the FIA the preference to have grands prix end with the cars racing rather than cruising in formation.
Though it’s not in the regulations, the final laps of the Australian Grand Prix could be considered as the first live test of that model.
How it fared is clear. Whether the outcome is acceptable is what now must be considered.
SEVEN SENT SPINNING FROM RESTART | 01:16
IS RESTARTING THE RACE IN THE FINAL LAPS A FAIR OUTCOME?
No-one disputes that a standing start is the most exciting part of a race. It’s when the drivers, not the cars, matters most — when they need all their skill to accelerate to racing speed from stationary while also racing wheel to wheel with all 19 other drivers.
But a standing start at the beginning of the race is completely different to one in the final few laps.
Positions lost on the first lap can be recovered over the fullness of a race distance. The outcome of a standing start in the last couple of laps risks becoming permanent.
It turns an entire grand prix into a lottery.
Faced with the prospect of 305 kilometres being condensed into two laps, the drivers on that ill-fated restart grid were injected with an excess of red mist. Carnage ensued.
“It’s always going to be a mess if it’s a race of two laps,” said Valtteri Bottas. “Especially outside the top 10 you try to do everything you can to get into the top 10 because there’s nothing to lose.”
Norris said a standing start so close to the end of the race was unnecessarily risky.
“It invites risk,” he said. “Nothing against [the FIA], but the people who make decisions don’t know what’s going on inside the car.
“We’ve come all the way to Australia, but it’s so much hard work driving 55, 56 laps perfectly and, because they try and put on a show, you just get unlucky and everything can get taken away from you all of a sudden.
“I just feel like it can easily hurt people, and you can just be so unlucky after driving 56 laps perfectly — someone does something stupid in turn 1, locks up and your race is over because they just want to make the show more exciting.
“At the end of the day I know it is a show, but we’re not here to just put on a good show; we want to race each other and be fair, and I don’t think it’s fair for everyone.”
Australian Grand Prix – Race Highlights | 07:03
SO WHAT’S THE SOLUTION?
Like everything in Formula 1, there’s no easy answer that will work in all situations. But while it’s tempting to take a hands-off approach to avoid excessive regulation, it’s also clear that a blanket rule to suspend and restart races at all costs isn’t fair.
Having an unwritten policy of red flagging and restarting races also does a disservice to fans, among whom cynicism will grow in the vacuum of official information.
“We just need to define [when you need a red flag],” Wolff said. “I think restarts are mega. When they come as a surprise, and you can’t really understand, then maybe not so much.
“I’m generally in favour of making great entertainment, but the rule book of the sport … let’s define together what is a VSC, what is a safety car, what is a red flag.”
And if the FIA is going to attempt to codify thresholds for using a red flag, it out to set similar limits on standing restarts.
Maybe it’s as easy as saying that if there’s less than 20 per cent of the race still to run — so around 11 laps at Albert Park — then a rolling restart behind the safety car is the default method of resuming from a red flag to avoid the sort of silly carnage we saw on Sunday. Meanwhile, a standing start with more than 11 laps prevents the outcome being determined by the lottery of a standing start.
And if there are only two or three laps to go, the sport should consider whether it absolutely must go out of its way to not finish behind the safety car. While no-one thinks it’s an exciting outcome, is it any less thrilling than, say, a Red Bull Racing driver winning by 40 seconds?
Not every race needs to have a nailbiting last-lap conclusion. In fact most don’t. And in the quest to manufacture one, everyone ended up looking silly when the chequered flag fell on the chaotic Australian Grand Prix.
