Is the FIA spoiling racing? The Virtual safety car at the end of the race causes controversy at the Mexican Grand Prix, causing an explanation to be made post-race.

Just when the closing laps of this weekends’ Grand Prix approached and all eyes were on the front of the grid, a Virtual safety car was deployed by the FIA, preventing the heated encounters to commence to a head, causing confusion and upset from fans and commentators alike.

Image Credits To: Auto Hebdo F1

Coming into the last few laps on the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit, two intense battles were underway in the cars of Charles Leclerc and Ollie Bearman defending hard against the hungry Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri, both drivers gaining in every turn. These overtakes would give them extra valuable points towards their Drivers’ Championship charges.

In lap seventy, just as Piastri was hot on Bearman’s tail and the four-time world Champion was about to pounce on Leclerc’s worn out tires, a double yellow flag was waved, to which a safety car followed. This was because Carlos Sainz, who had an unfortunate series of events occur this weekend, including picking up a five-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane while his car bounced due to some issues, had spun into turn 15. He hit the rear end of his Williams on the kerb exiting the right side, going into the middle of the stadium complex, the Sky Sports commentators calling it the the slowest part of the circuit. He picked up a suspension issue, pulling the car into a gap between the barriers, the front half of the car out of the way.

This was initially believed to be enough out of the way to not impede the racing, as spoken about by the Sky Sports Commentators. Much like fans, they too were disappointed that the racing had to be halted. Despite the race starting up again, it was only for half a lap, which was not enough time for either of the drivers in contention for the championship to gain a position.

The image supplied by the FIA, detailing where Carlos Sainz is on the track.

While you can see at where Carlos Sainz was positioned and make the judgement that the car and him are well out of the way of the track and the rest of the grid, the FIA did not think it was safe and therefore deployed a Virtual Safety car.

The FIA have come out and provided explanation for their decision, causing the racing to be halted at the peak of the action. In an X post, the Formula 1 official account put out a statement, attaching an onboard video of Carlos Sainz and what occurred with the car, the statement saying the following:

“Why the Virtual Safety Car was used on Lap 70 in Mexico…Carlos Sainz spun and stopped at Turn 14 and the car began smoking, meaning marshals would need to enter the track causing a VSC to be deployed.”

This then follows an official statement put out my the FIA:

“On lap 70, Sainz spun and stopped in the runoff area on the outside of Turn 14. His car came to a halt in an exposed position. The car subsequently began smoking and race control received notifications of fire, making it clear that marshal intervention would be required for recovery.

“As is standard procedure when marshals are deployed to recover a car, the race is neutralized, in this case, a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was triggered until the car was moved to a safe location behind the barriers. The VSC ended as soon as the car was in a protected position, and the race concluded under green-flag conditions.”

While the reasoning is logical a lot of people will argue that this stunt by the FIA was overkill, many fans feeling hard done by due to the racing not continuing to a thrilling end.

This does also follow an earlier incident, where two marshals were seen running into the track in front of Liam Lawson, Lawson caught completely off guard, saying “I could’ve f****** killed them!” Not only did they put themselves in danger, they also put Lawson in danger. The decision by the FIA therefore makes more sense due to safety concerns for marshals.

While the decision to employ the safety car was the correct choice by the FIA, it was not a favourable one. Many will still feel robbed by the decision made, not able to get that intense racing moment back.