Sky Sports commentator Martin Brundle was left disappointed by the decision to complete laps behind the Safety Car before starting the German Grand Prix.
The race at Hockenheim saw the first use of a rule introduced two years ago whereby drivers completed formation laps to assess the track conditions before lining up for a standing start.
However, while the drivers began on full wets, Brundle doesn’t believe the track conditions warranted the measure and particularly for what equated to three racing laps.
“It was rather frustrating to see the race start behind the Safety Car,” he wrote in his post-race blog for the British broadcaster.
“The latest regulations allow for the cars to trundle round as the best way to disperse water before thankfully lining up and performing a normal start with a suitably reduced number of race laps.
“As always when you’re not responsible for health and safety it’s easy to say we should just have got on with it on a track not unduly covered with standing water, but as I often say, the throttle works both ways and some of the best drivers in the world can moderate speed to conditions.”
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The act of implementing the standing start is still at the stewards’ discretion, however, but race director Michael Masi was comfortable to go ahead with it.
“It was a fluid movement all the way through judging from the track conditions, to be honest,” he said.
“We were judging them all the way through up until the ten-minute signal. So what you probably aren’t aware of is we sent the Medical Car out to do a few laps as well.
“Obviously we had weather services, everyone putting their hands out to let us know, so it was a mixture of all the information, and then between the four of us collectively up in race control as a team we split the driver radios between us, to listen to what their feedback was, in general, what they thought of the track as it was evolving.
“To be honest, the way it was, in hindsight it was a very simple decision to go for a standing start restart.”
