Doornbos: "So that's a bit of a strange rule"
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Lewis Hamilton was able to leave Verstappen behind at the safety car restart in the Eifel Grand Prix. It seemed as if the Dutchman wasn't paying attention at that moment, but later he stated that it was mainly due to a lack of grip. Hamilton didn't have that problem thanks to the DAS system and at the same time Verstappen had Ricciardo attacking him. In the end, the Dutchman managed to maintain his position, but he had to work for it.
The impact of the DAS system
In his column for Ziggo Sport Robert Doornbos looks back at this situation last weekend: "The DAS system did its job and Max had to fight a little harder for it". The Dutchman could not keep up with Hamilton and had some trouble getting away really fast, but it ended well. Nevertheless, the regulations regarding the 'unlapping' of cars are now under a magnifying glass, because is it fair?
"We had had a virtual safety car before, but now the real one came along and that created a rather crazy situation where the leaders were not in line, there was someone else in between. Then most of the field was 'lapped' by both Lewis and Max, all but three, I think. They may have 'unlapped' themselves," said Doornbos, which gave all the drivers on a lap the chance to warm up their tyres.
Space to warm up
"Ricciardo, who was behind Max on P3, who was 54 seconds behind him so he could make up for almost a minute at full race speed. And when he joined behind Max, race director Michael Masi said: 'OK, the safety car is coming in this lap'. That meant Ricciardo had the advantage of getting more temperature in the tyres that we saw at that restart."
"That's a bit of a strange rule", continued Doornbos, "because you don't want those guys to stay in between and the whole field is not just in order. But this was to the advantage of the men who could make up for some time and raise the temperature."
Hamilton would have had exactly the same if he didn't have that DAS system at his disposal, but since he did, Verstappen has in some ways become an unintended victim of the regulations. But in the end it remained without 'damage', as the Dutchman crossed the finish line in second place.