silverstone ended behind the safety car because of a software error
leclerc won the british GP and ferrari got win number 250, but race control promised a final-lap restart and then couldn't deliver it.
a record 564,000 people went to silverstone over the weekend. on sunday they watched the last laps of the british grand prix behind a safety car, right after race control told everyone the race was about to restart. it didn’t.
the sequence went like this. max verstappen spun into the gravel at stowe on lap 48 of 52 (he says the rear wing didn’t fully close, like in austria qualifying). the safety car came out. on lap 51 the lapped cars were waved past, and then the “safety car in this lap” message went up, which should mean a one-lap shootout for the win.
except the safety car stayed out and led them all the way to the flag. the FIA’s explanation afterwards: the rules say there has to be one full lap after the lapped cars go through, race control followed that correctly, and the restart message was shown by mistake because of a software error. so the rule was applied properly and it still looked like a shambles. only the FIA.
and before anyone says they should have just restarted it anyway, abu dhabi 2021 is what happens when race control decides that rule is optional. my problem is the lack of a plan. if a crash with four laps left can’t be cleared in time, red flag it and give us a standing restart. if you won’t do that, say so and do the same thing every time. the people who paid for sunday deserved better than a glitch on the timing screen.
carlos sainz managed to make it weirder. he got a one-lap penalty for unlapping himself by accident through the pit lane during the safety car, which dropped him from P12 to P17. i didn’t know that was possible either.
none of this should take away from charles leclerc, who jumped antonelli at the start, led most of the race and took his first win at silverstone. it was also ferrari’s 250th in the world championship. russell stayed out on old mediums under the safety car and took second from hamilton, who had pitted for softs he never got to use.
kimi antonelli had the worst sunday of anyone. he won the sprint on saturday, took pole, and was 7.5 seconds behind leclerc on fresher tyres with 16 laps to go. then he broke a wheel shield on the kerb at copse, pitted twice, picked up a five-second penalty for track limits and was classified P15. his lead over russell was 43 points on saturday evening. it’s 25 now.
we get a weekend off, and then it’s spa on 19 july. prediction: antonelli is on pole again, because mercedes hasn’t missed one all year, and if it finishes behind a safety car i’m blaming the software. see you then.