The Safety Cars are Supposed to be SLOW
Alright, let's have a bit of a chat, gather round gather round. You know what I hate in sport, is when individuals try and control the sport, or individuals think they are bigger than the sport. I hate it. But it happens all the time, not even in sport but things like pro wrestling and music, it happens, one individual thinks the sport or thing should be run one way instead of another and then they throw a tantrum like they are a 5 year old girl that didn't get a lollipop. In wrestling, in the 90s there was the Monday night wars the rivalry between WWF at the time and WCW, and one thing WCW did to lure wrestlers over to them was offer a lot of cash and very nice contracts. Contracts so cushy that mean that wrestlers had creative control over their character. The downside to that was that these ego run morons always wanted to be the good guys getting cheered and to hold onto the title, but not everyone can do that, then all of a sudden the product turned to shit, people started watching WWE/F and Vince McMahon won the Monday night wars. It's as simple as that.
It happens in the NBA, how often to we hear, so and so has demanded a trade, or such and such, wants to bring in this player and that player and if you don't they're leaving and going somewhere else. They hold the organisation and team hostage and put them in a difficult situation as well. And Teams and owners aren't immune either, they do the same thing to cities and towns, if you don't help us build a stadium, I'm packing the team up and moving to another city, which is bullshit because the own of any major sporting organisation in the US has to be a billionaire a few times over and can afford their own stadium. These are all moments of the person or owner thinking that they are bigger than the sport. And it happens in F1 as well.
These are the best drivers in the world, so what's going to happen, they're going to bitch and moan and try and get everything their way. first it was the porpoising, oh we porpoising badly, therefore it's dangerous therefore we need to not allow cars to do that and punish other teams so we all have to slow down. no motherfucker, you figure it out yourself. Rumours had it that Lewis held the FIA hostage, you get rid of Michael Masi or I'm not coming back, that was Lewis being bigger than the sport, the sport was held hostage, they knew that if they lost Lewis, that's a lot of money and because Formula 1, would push their grandma off a cliff into a pit of spikes and aids ridden baboons for some cash, we all knew that Lewis was going to be coming back. When in reality the process and role of the race director is what really needed to change rather than giving into the demands of the cash cow of F1.
Well it's happening again. Aston Martin safety car is too fucking slow, the safety cars are too slow, it's not just season as well I remember many times last year there were complaints about the speed of the safety car. I know that it's going to be difficult to drive an F1 car at slow speeds, they aren't designed to do that, but after watching footage of the Tom Pryce death in Kyalami back in 1977 and what happened to him and the marshal in that race, you don't want cars going quick on the track if there are hazards and marshals on the track trying to clean up the mess that one of your fuckers caused in the first fucking place.
This is what Max Verstappen had to say "There's so little grip and also the safety car was driving so slow, it was like a turtle. Unbelievable, To drive 140 [km/h] on the back straight, there was not a damaged car, so I don't understand why we have to drive so slowly. We have to investigate. The Mercedes safety car is faster because of the extra aero, because this Aston Martin is really slow. It definitely needs more grip, because our tyres were stone cold. It's pretty terrible the way we are driving behind the safety car at the moment."
If Max had thought about things for a minute then he wouldn't look like a bit of a dick here, and I'm a Max Verstappen fan, I really am. But issue one, the safety cars, medical cars, cranes, mopeds, Lewis Hamilton's scooter, trucks, planes and so on, EVERY SINGLE VEHICLE there, OTHER than an F1 car needs to be able to have tyres fitted for ALL weather and track conditions, the speed of the safety car isn't determined by the guys driving it either, they're told what speed to go at AND aren't you guys the best drivers in the world, you F1 drivers, you're the best right, well being one of the best drivers in the world maybe you can handle driving slow, Mazepin and Latifi did it all last year, maybe you can do it now you spud.
Charles Leclerc decided he needed to weigh in for some fucking reason, "I wanted to complain, but then I checked how much the safety car was sliding in the corner and I don't think there was anything more that he could give so I didn't want to put too much pressure, With the cars that we have now it's very difficult to keep the temperatures in the tyres behind the safety car." - ok, so he didn't go all out and have a crack, but hey, he got a Grand Slam and looks the way he does, I wouldn't complain about too much, I mean I don't, Charles Leclerc and I look the same. ANYWAY, its difficult to keep the temperature in the tyres.... boohoo, it's then difficult for everyone, you're the best 19 drivers in the world and Nicholas Latifi, so get the fuck over it.
Luckily for once the FIA didn't bow down to the drivers and had this statement issued. "The FIA would like to reiterate that the primary function of the ... safety car is, of course, not outright speed but the safety of the drivers, marshals and officials, The speed of the safety car is therefore generally dictated by race control, and not limited by the capabilities of the safety cars, The impact of the speed of the safety car on the performance of the cars following is a secondary consideration, as the impact is equal amongst all competitors who ... are responsible for driving in a safe manner at all times."
Hey Max Verstappen, reigning world champ, life got tough for you for a few laps there, get the fuck over it, everyone's affected equally, also, if you're so fucking good at driving you'd be able to manage the cold tyres without any fucking issue, maybe stop stressing about tyre temps and have a chat to your team about your engine that's turning to shit every other weekend.
AM I FUCKING WRONG!