Alex Albon: The double standards rules should probably be reviewed

The safety car ended up on the track from the first Grand Prix of the season. On the 46th lap, Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri caught fire, causing a yellow flag to be waved. Although the Virtual Safety Car was initially announced, the brand new Mercedes AMG quickly made its entrance.

After three laps behind a car judged as extremely slow by Charles Leclerc, the race officials allowed six drivers to overtake the safety car to erase their lap disadvantage. However, their time was very limited. Indeed, the race was restarted before the backmarkers had the opportunity to catch up to the front of the pack. The leader of this second group, Lance Stroll, therefore had a 20-second gap with the leading car.

For this reason, Alexander Albon called into question the effectiveness of these new rules, as they force drivers to drive extremely fast despite the safety car.

« They have created a rule that I think is related to Abu Dhabi, there is only one safety car period to catch up, which is not enough,” he explained. « First of all, in terms of safety, I think it was good, but we were driving at full speed and the safety car was on the track. I’m not sure if that’s what we want, but of course we will drive as fast as possible to catch up with the leaders,” Albon continued.

I don’t know if it’s better or not. For me, it made things worse in the sense that it shattered the group, we were sort of in our own race, separated from everyone else, so it’s maybe something to reconsider, he concluded.