That should have been an automatic instant red flag. Just because it's the last lap shouldn't mean that race control can weasel themselves out of that decision and endanger the driver sitting in the middle of the road. Race Control dropped the ball with that VSC decision. Listen to the onboard audio of RUS, you can hear the panic in his voice: https://dubz.co/c/f82a3d
this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2024
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Agree. It was a fast turn as well, so incoming drivers won't see it.
The cars still all have to travel back to the pit lane for a red flag; they don't just stop where they are in the track. It was the last lap, the only difference between vsc and a red flag is the trip down pit lane.
I'm not really sure if I can convey my thought process in English but I'll try.
The cars still all have to travel back to the pit lane
That is true. However you could see that some cars struggled to clear the stationed Mercedes and had to take to the grass. There was a bunch of debris on either side of the Mercedes.
After a red flag the other drivers could take their time to find the safest way around the Mercedes, or if necessary stop the car entirely. That's not really possible during a VSC because the race is technically still going on. Or to put it another way: during a VSC the drivers only slow down as much as they have to. But they don't want to slow more than necessary. Let's say the driver in front of you has a time penalty that will be applied after the race. During a VSC you'll scramble by the stopped car as fast as possible to not lose more time. It's potentially unsafe.
Lookup how vsc works again. No passing allowed. No racing allowed. Cars must reduce speed and prepare to stop. Cars must maintain deltas.
Once the vsc came out the race results were frozen.
The only difference a red flag would have made is that Russell would have kept his #7 spot in the results.
Russell would have not made it back to the pits and would still be DNF.
Also look up the video of Stroll passing by Russel's car, you can hear the fear on the engineer's voice as he warned Stroll.
~~Third big crash I recall for Russell where he's dropped the ball.~~
~~Canada 2023, Singapore 2023 and now this one.~~
Taking it back. Alonso got a penalty for dangerous driving.
I just read the penalty for Alonso and sounds like RUS is not at fault here.
Retracted my statement. Thanks for letting me know about the update from the stewards.
Singapore was the last lap as well..
Can't recall Canada
Canada wasn't last lap, but he hit the wall and managed to keep it going for many laps until they retired the car.