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FIA Had To Clarify F1 Safety Cars Are Cool and Powerful, Here's the Statement

It’s not every day that you see Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) clarifying that Formula 1’s (F1’s) safety cars are good enough for that motorsport. However, this time, well, a statement was needed. So here’s what the message looked like.
Aston Martin's F1 Safety Car in Action 7 photos
Photo: FIA on Facebook
Aston Martin Vantage F1 Safety CarAston Martin Vantage F1 Safety CarAston Martin Vantage F1 Safety CarMercedes-AMG GT Black Series F1 Safety CarMercedes-AMG GT Black Series F1 Safety CarMercedes-AMG GT Black Series F1 Safety Car
Right from the get-go, FIA explains that safety cars used in F1 are not about speed, but they’re there to ensure “safety for the drivers, marshals, and officials.”

The governing body explains that these Aston Martin and Mercedes-Benz high-performance vehicles have various responsibilities on the track, and they're determined by what's happening on the circuit. Among their duties, we find having the field bunched up to allow track workers to do their job so racing can resume in a timely manner. If there's debris on the track, marshals need to be on track to clean debris. If the drivers are spread out at various racing speeds, some of them might collide with recovery personnel or, worse still, collide with other drivers and debris.

“The speed of the Safety Car is therefore generally dictated by Race Control, and not limited by the capabilities of the Safety Cars, which are bespoke high-performance vehicles prepared by two of the world’s top manufacturers (…),” said FIA in its statement published on social media channels.

It's hard to think Aston Martins are slow cars. On the contrary, they're cool-looking, can generate enough power to impress almost anyone that's not an F1 champion, have the right equipment installed on them, and handle very well. Moreover, in particular, the Vantage is not something that you’d be inclined to call “slow.”

Furthermore, let’s not forget a very important aspect: underneath that beautiful exterior, you’ll open the hood and find a Mercedes-AMG engine. Similarly, inside you’ll be met by an older Mercedes-Benz interior. Aston Martin may bear its fair share of questionable decisions when it came to how much German influence it allowed on its cars, but, by any calculable measure, the British manufacturer doesn’t send out slugs on the track or vehicles that haven’t been thoroughly verified by F1’s inspectors.

At the end of the day, Max Verstappen said something out of anger or frustration, FIA clarified the driver was wrong with his assumptions without naming any names, and all was well again. Let racing resume now because this year’s championship looks like a full-on Ferrari sweep.
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About the author: Florin Amariei
Florin Amariei profile photo

Car shows on TV and his father's Fiat Tempra may have been Florin's early influences, but nowadays he favors different things, like the power of an F-150 Raptor. He'll never be able to ignore the shape of a Ferrari though, especially a yellow one.
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