Ayao Komatsu: Better a red flag than a race finish behind the safety car

– Should Formula 1 do away with a race finish behind the safety car and instead ensure that fans get an exciting finale through a red flag? At least Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu holds this view, finding a neutralized race finish like in Silverstone two weeks ago unsatisfactory.

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In the UK, the safety car was deployed shortly before the end after Max Verstappen went off track. Ferrari had called Lewis Hamilton into the pits for fresh tires, but Mercedes left George Russell out behind him, allowing Russell to pass Hamilton into second place.

Because the race was not restarted, Russell ultimately finished ahead of Hamilton. However, the fans were denied an entertaining final phase due to the neutralization, which Komatsu finds unfortunate.

In his opinion, a race suspension would be the more sensible option. “At least we could have had a race over three or four laps. That is far better than finishing behind the safety car,” says the Japanese before the Formula 1 race in Belgium.

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Another problem in Silverstone: Because drivers still had to unlap themselves, the race could not be restarted in time. “In my opinion, that takes far too long,” criticizes Komatsu this process, which was also central to the controversial 2021 Abu Dhabi finale when race director Michael Masi immediately restarted the race.

He would have preferred if the unlapping had been skipped. “If you use the safety car at this point to let the cars unlap themselves, you definitely lose one or two laps,” he says. “So I don’t know.”

“I’m not claiming to be right. But personally, I think if we had shown the red flag immediately after the incident in Silverstone, the spectators might have had at least two laps – I don’t remember exactly – or a few laps of real racing,” says the Haas team principal.

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Basically, this would mean that from a certain number of laps remaining, a red flag would automatically be shown instead of the safety car. The question then would be: Where do you draw the line?

“Normally, you don’t restart the race if only four laps remain. Even five laps is, let’s say, quite borderline,” Komatsu says, and thinks that in this question, pros and cons should be weighed in the final phase: “What is the disadvantage if we show the red flag instead of the safety car?”

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The disadvantage would probably be that a restart would create winners and losers who normally would not have existed. On the other hand, all drivers are allowed to change tires during a red flag, which in turn creates a balance.

Komatsu emphasizes that this would have avoided one of the most controversial situations of recent years: Abu Dhabi 2021. “Because if you show the red flag, everyone would change tires.” Meaning: Lewis Hamilton would not have been defenseless on old tires against Max Verstappen but would have had the same tires.

“So that’s probably a fair way. And it offers the spectators racing,” says Komatsu.

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