Motorsport gives and takes away. This has always been the way. Sometimes full course yellows, safety cars and red flags work in our favourite drivers favour, other times it works the exact opposite and has huge consequences.

In Madrid, Lando Norris and McLaren faced the full blunt of this. 5 seconds after the reigning world champion passed the pitlane entry, the FIA called the Virtual Safety Car to get the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll to a safe place after he suffered a mechanical DNF. However, as a result of Norris missing the pitlane, his competitors whom he was battling for the race win such as Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen managed to pit and get a cheaper pitstop compared to Norris. This led to the papaya driver dropping to P3.

There has been a lot of conversation around how (or if) the FIA should change the rules around the VSC. So I’m going go over potential solutions to this situation and why the solution is no change.

Solution 1: Introduce the Formula 2 Rules

Formula 2 has different rules around pitstops for Formula 1. Within the final step of the FIA ladder before F1, drivers have to do a mandatory pitstop and use the two dry tyre compounds assigned for that weekend.

However, there are specific F2 rules in this regard:
– Drivers cannot complete their mandatory pitstop under a Virtual Safety Car or a red flag

– Drivers cannot complete their mandatory pitstop within the first 6 laps of a Feature Race.

These 2 rules are critical for the series’ strategist to determine when the best time to pit is as they have to be careful of any effects outside of their control.

Solution 2: Have the VSC out for 1 lap

I think the main issue people have with the VSC rules is that Lando JUST passed the pitlane and had to complete 1 full green lap pitstop compared to Antonelli and Verstappen.

So if the VSC is out for 1 full lap then if a driver just misses the pit entry, they don’t get a disadvantage compared to a full green pitstop. Of course, more effects can come into play which would then lead into more conversations about the entire situation.

Why the best solution is no change at all

As I mentioned above, the best solution, is none at all. This is all apart of racing. Sometimes virtual safety cars, red flags, etc play into your favor, other times, they go against you. Look at Miami 2024: when Logan Sargeant and Kevin Magnussen collided and the safety car came out, it played perfectly into Lando’s hands and led him to take his first win but there wasn’t any discussion about changing the procedure then.

As well as this, the entire point of these stoppages is for safety; having marshalls on track, barrier repairs, recovering cars etc are all at the core of these procedures in order to get green flag racing back underway.

What do you think? Do you agree with my opinions? Let me know!

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