A majority of drivers unhappy with the safety car period at the start of the race
While the safety car at the start of the British Grand Prix seemed inevitable, the 5 laps spent behind it annoyed the drivers, who would have preferred to be released earlier.
The heavy rainstorm that descended on the Silverstone circuit a few minutes before the start forced the race officials to begin the Grand Prix under the safety car regime.
A good decision according to the drivers, the first concerned by these safety measures: « There needed to be a start behind the safety car. There was a lot of water and many puddles on the track. » noted Jenson Button in particular.
Nico Rosberg rather agreed with the Briton on this subject: « We needed to keep an eye on the track. »
But the 5 laps spent behind the safety car were deemed too long by the drivers, who would have liked to be released earlier to have, in particular, a bit more strategic freedom: “We waited too long. The safety car should have come in two laps earlier. The problem is that everyone pitted at the same time. So we couldn’t make a difference,” Button explains.
Lewis Hamilton, winner of the race, even thinks a normal start could have been given: “We could have had a start on the grid. Some places were tricky, but that’s racing!”
A start to the race decided in this way by the management and perfectly summed up by the 7th place finisher of this Grand Prix, Carlos Sainz: “They played it really safe!”
