After Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu stopped on the side of the track with an engine problem in the closing stages, the FIA called a virtual safety car to allow the marshals to retrieve his crashed car.
Once the track was cleared, Race Direction sent a message to the teams letting them know that the Virtual Safety Car period was coming to an end.
According to F1 sporting regulations, the race is then supposed to go green “at any time between 10 and 15 seconds later”, i.e. when the drivers are then cleared to resume racing.
However, this did not happen on the first attempt at Paul Ricard and the race remained longer under virtual safety car conditions.
A second “VSC ending” message was then sent and the race eventually resumed – but the delay caused confusion for some drivers, with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez surprised by his lack of speed at the start of the race.
After being passed by George Russell as he picked up speed, he later said: “I mean it’s a shame the virtual safety car interfered with the result, to be honest. It Shouldn’t be the case, but today it was.
“This [the message of VSC ending] was totally wrong, something was happening because he said it was going to end at turn 9 and it didn’t end until turn 12.”
But the FIA explained that the delay in restarting the race was due to problems with its computer system, which forced it to switch to a backup solution.
It worked as expected, but caused a delay in restarting.
Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB18, George Russell, Mercedes W13
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
A statement from the FIA said: “A second VSC end message was sent due to a hardware issue, which led to an automated switch to save systems which worked exactly as they should in this scenario.
“The same information is provided simultaneously to all teams. The countdown from the end of the VSC to the green light displayed on the signs at the edge of the track is always random.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was not particularly upset by the matter, but said the important thing was to get an explanation from the FIA about what went wrong.
“I think we just want to get the facts,” he said. “I just had a conversation with Checo, I think we just want to understand because there was some sort of problem with the system.”
After Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu stopped on the side of the track with an engine problem in the closing stages, the FIA called a virtual safety car to allow the marshals to retrieve his crashed car.
Once the track was cleared, Race Direction sent a message to the teams letting them know that the Virtual Safety Car period was coming to an end.
According to F1 sporting regulations, the race is then supposed to go green “at any time between 10 and 15 seconds later”, i.e. when the drivers are then cleared to resume racing.
However, this did not happen on the first attempt at Paul Ricard and the race remained longer under virtual safety car conditions.
A second “VSC ending” message was then sent and the race eventually resumed – but the delay caused confusion for some drivers, with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez surprised by his lack of speed at the start of the race.
After being passed by George Russell as he picked up speed, he later said: “I mean it’s a shame the virtual safety car interfered with the result, to be honest. It Shouldn’t be the case, but today it was.
“This [the message of VSC ending] was totally wrong, something was happening because he said it was going to end at turn 9 and it didn’t end until turn 12.”
But the FIA explained that the delay in restarting the race was due to problems with its computer system, which forced it to switch to a backup solution.
It worked as expected, but caused a delay in restarting.
Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB18, George Russell, Mercedes W13
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
A statement from the FIA said: “A second VSC end message was sent due to a hardware issue, which led to an automated switch to save systems which worked exactly as they should in this scenario.
“The same information is provided simultaneously to all teams. The countdown from the end of the VSC to the green light displayed on the signs at the edge of the track is always random.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was not particularly upset by the matter, but said the important thing was to get an explanation from the FIA about what went wrong.
“I think we just want to get the facts,” he said. “I just had a conversation with Checo, I think we just want to understand because there was some sort of problem with the system.”