Fernando Alonso believes the reason there hasn’t been a safety car in recent races is due to the way drivers are handling the current cars.
F1 is currently on a nine-race streak without a safety car, the first time since the gap between the 2003 Hungarian GP and the 2004 Spanish GP. This streak also includes F1’s first-ever safety car-free Singapore Grand Prix.
Alonso thinks the characteristics of the new ground-effect cars are part of the reason.
The Aston Martin driver said, “These cars aren’t easy to drive, and I think the biggest issue is getting 100% out of them.”
“When you drive at 90%, sometimes you’re faster because you’re not pushing the car into awkward angles or ride heights. You can be fast driving at 90% without pushing the limits.”
Alonso added that the performance of the current cars can become extremely confusing when drivers push to the limit.
“Baku was a great example of this.”
“With Lando’s issue, I was 15th in Q1, and if that hadn’t happened, I would have started 16th.”
“Seven minutes later, I put on another set of tires and placed 5th in Q2. Even though I drove the same way, I improved my lap time by around 1.1 seconds.”
“I was braking at the same points, everything I did was exactly the same, but I gained 1.1 seconds. For some of us, the opposite happened: they were very fast in Q1 but slowed down in Q2. So, sometimes we can’t explain when and why we’re fast or slow.”
“That’s why sometimes we’re all driving at 90%, paying attention to tires, fuel economy, and all these things. As a result, we don’t see too many issues, crashes, or safety cars.”
“When driving at this pace, the cars are happier. Of course, this goes against a driver’s nature; normally, you put on new tires and push at 110% if you can. But with this car, sometimes you have to hold back.”
