Force India driver Adrian Sutil has criticised Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel for his restarts at the Candian Grand Prix on Sunday. Sutil claims Vettel slowed the pack too much when the safety car returned to the pits during the race. The German driver was handed a drive-through penalty for crashing into Nico Rosberg during one of the restarts, but he believes his compatriot was to blame for incident, reports GPUpdate. Championship leader Vettel was at the front for each of the safety car restarts at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Sutil claims the Red Bull man had made the the field too compacted. He said: âVettel slowed down the pack so much and I almost had to stop. My wing was damaged but the car felt okay and my pace was still good. Then I got a drive-through penalty for overtaking Rosberg under the safety car. âHe slowed down on the straight because he thought he had a puncture, so that is something that I was surprised about. There was no other chance for me to react. I think was a little bit unlucky.â When the safety car lights are switched off for a restart and the AMG Mercedes heads down the pit lane, the current race leader car set the pace with no overtaking allowed until they cross the start-finish line.
To be honest at these restarts we only really get to see whats kicking off at the front. I sometimes wonder what its like mid field at these restarts.
Yeh, I did think he was quite slow, he could have done with bunching them up all the way from the 8/9 chicane, but at a slightly faster pace, then at the hairpin, holding it on the apex a fraction longer so second place couldn't get a perfect drive, then going for it. But I'm no F1 driver, so this probably doesn't work.
It was indeed very slow. So slow in fact, that I at one point, half a dozen cars were within a metre of each other whilst trying to heat their tyres. I thought this risked incurring a penalty, yet I remember nothing being said on the matter. In my opinion, his actions seemed in danger of contravening the sporting regulations; article 40.5 which states: " 40.5 No car may be driven unnecessarily slowly, erratically or in a manner which could be deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers or any other person at any time whilst the safety car is deployed. This will apply whether any such car is being driven on the track, the pit entry or the pit lane. " …Presumably the Stewards had too much else on their plate…
There's an interesting article on simplifying the safety car procedure here, if anyone is interested.
Hello Artical editor guy. I agree Vettel pushes the pack up way to much its not fair on everybody else
they should impose a minimum speed, I too thought Vettel was going to get a penalty, as I remember Lewis being warned when he caused Vettel to hit Webber in similar circumstances .
didnt Vettel get a penalty before for backing the cars up to much and falling way behind the safety car. This is similar
yeah, but i think they've changed the rules slightly, they have to follow so many car lengths behind until a certain point on the track, then the leader becomes the SC (at least that's the impression I got from Brundle), I do think there should be a minimum speed though.
It's the rules being stupid. It should be that the lead car has to stay within 30m of the safety car and as soon as it pulls off everyone is released.
welcome to the Forum HackerJack, I think the end result we want to see is a blitz of cars going over the start line not cars being left behind as the leader decided to back them up. I dont blame Seb for doing it but maybe its not a spectator friendly way
This wasn't Vettel's fault. It's the ridiculous new Safety car line rule they have, which I thought they would get rid of after the farcical scenes at the end of the Monaco grand prix last year. Vettel had to stay within ten car lengths of the safety car while the lights were on, but he then had to back off massively so he didn't catch the safety car on the long straight. If overtaking wasn't permitted until the start-finish line it wouldn't have mattered because he could just have waited until the chicane to bolt and followed the safety car up the straight. It's a stupid rule and hopefully they'll sort it out. I believe Jenson went into false neutral and lost drive. He'd been suffering with it on his in and out laps during qualifying. Under normal circumstances it would've been a drive-through I think.
I believe so. Like I say, he suffered with it on his in and out laps cruising through slow corners. They said it wouldn't be a problem in the race because he'd be taking them full speed, then the safety car came out.
