Martin Brundle expressed his disappointment with how the final laps of the Italian Grand Prix were handled by Race Control, describing it as “a catalogue of problems which ruined the end of the race”.
Max Verstappen won the grand prix under the Safety Car which was called out in response to Daniel Ricciardo’s broken down McLaren in the latter stages of the race.
The finale faced some controversy, with some believing the correct sequence of events happened with the Safety Car while some believed the race should have been red flagged to allow for a more exciting ending.
The former Formula 1 driver and pundit delved into what made the final laps so anti-climactic and what could be improved for the future in his latest column for Sky Sports F1.
“It was painful to watch. The McLaren was stuck in gear so couldn’t be wheeled away after Daniel struggled to find a decent service opening,” Brundle wrote.
“It’s an old school track with poor service road access, and eventually a mobile crane arrived to scoop it up.”
Many fans, including Brundle, were concerned with the use of the mobile crane on track as the cars were still following the Safety Car after a similar situation led to the tragic and untimely death of Jules Bianchi in 2014.
On the matter, Brundle continued: “I must say seeing the cars file past a recovery vehicle and a suspended F1 car reversing down the track, albeit at safety car speeds, it would have been easy to justify a red flag stoppage.”
The 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix was a great advert for the use of a red flag in the late stages of a grand prix, if necessary.
Following Lance Stroll and Verstappen’s high speed punctures on the main straight in Baku, a red flag was thrown allowing all drivers to change tyres to prevent another dangerous shunt from happening.
Brundle explains that there has been talks of such a thing being enforced in the future: “There has been an initiative discussed whereby, in the final five laps of a race, if there’s an issue of this kind then throw the red flag and have a standing start re-start.
“We saw this in Azerbaijan last year and it does make for great anticipation and a thrilling finale to a race. I must say though that for me a red flag means a very serious incident or something like a cloud burst and a waterlogged track.”
