Max Verstappen took issue with the Safety Car interventions during the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix, arguing it made the race “less fun” amid another dominant win.
Things couldn’t have gone better for Verstappen, who led at the start and survived the interruptions to record a crushing 13-second winning margin over Lando Norris.
However, the Dutchman’s sole concern from the race in Shanghai was the Safety Car periods that neutralised proceedings, starting on Lap 22 as Valtteri Bottas stopped.
The second intervention then arrived when the restart to racing conditions saw chaos brew further back as Kevin Magnussen tipped Yuki Tsunoda into a spin at Turn 6.
Verstappen took issue not only with how the Safety Cars impacted the overall race but also the manner in which the periods were handled in terms of the length of time.
“It just took a long time, I found, to get the first car cleared, and then I felt like we drove one more lap behind the Safety Car for nothing,” he said.
“So I was like, yeah, come on, speed up a bit.
“Then, of course, we had another Safety Car. For me, it felt, again, that they took a long time to clear, because you want to race, right?
“I thought that because of the two Safety Cars , it made it a little bit less fun, because you would have seen probably more different strategies between the cars.
“Now everyone was just driving it more or less to the end, except, I think, Fernando [Alonso] was on the soft, but it made it a little bit more straightforward. So that was a bit of a shame.”
A shame on one part, but not in another as Verstappen had another routine weekend to the win.
After clearing the field in Saturday’s Sprint from fourth on the grid, it was always likely that Verstappen would take to the top step of the podium again and he duly did.
The Red Bull driver admitted the first Sprint weekend of 2024 did add an element of unknown, but was pleased things went off without a hitch for him and the team.
“Yeah, it’s a great feeling, of course,” he expressed. “You never know when you enter the weekend how it’s going to go fully.
“Sprint weekends are normally, always a bit more chaotic, so you always want it to go really well, but then it did go really well.
“So then, of course, very pleased, but also the performance, I think, now in the main race, the car was, I think, an improvement compared to the Sprint race.
“So it just made my life a bit easier as well, a bit more, yeah, it could be a little bit more consistent while driving.”
He reflected further on his maiden win in China, adding: “It was a good one.
“In terms of just also balance in the car we did a good job as a team to make it even better than what it was at the start of the weekend,” he concluded.
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