Max Verstappen believes Formula 1 should "investigate" the issue of Safety Car performance, describing the Aston Martin as a "turtle".

Aston Martin and Mercedes have shared the supply of Safety and Medical Cars in recent years, with one or the other being used at each race weekend.

In Australia, the Vantage made its first appearance of the year after the AMG GT was used in Bahrain and Jeddah, but its return was not welcomed by the Dutchman. 

“It was like a turtle,” Verstappen told The Race. “Unbelievable. With that car, to drive 140km/h on the back straight where that was not a damaged car anymore, I don’t understand why we have to drive so slowly.

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“We have to investigate. For sure the Mercedes Safety Car is faster because of the extra aero.

“The Aston Martin is really slow. It definitely needs more grip because our tyres were stone cold.

“We went into the last corner and I could see Charles [Leclerc] understeering, so I’m like ‘OK I’ll back off a bit more and get a better line’.

“But it’s pretty terrible, the way we are driving behind the Safety Car at the moment.”

After the race, George Russell agreed with the Red Bull driver, allegiances aside.

"We don’t have the issue with the Mercedes AMG Safety Car,” he quipped. "On a serious note, the Mercedes AMG is like five seconds a lot quicker than the Aston Martin Safety Car, which is pretty substantial.”

Race winner Charles Leclerc offered his own idea, jokingly suggesting: “We need to put a Ferrari so it’s then five seconds quicker…”

But the Monegasque also admitted the Aston Martin may not be fully suitable for the task.

“To be honest it always feels too slow in the car because with those Formula 1 cars, we have so much grip and it’s very, very difficult, especially on the compound we were all on, which was the hards," he said.

“I was struggling massively to put some temperature in them so I also struggled.

“Then, to be honest, I wanted to complain, but then I checked how much the Safety Car was sliding in the corner and I don’t think there was anything more that he could give so I didn’t want to push too much pressure.

"So yeah, it’s the way it is, but for sure with the cars that we have now it’s very difficult to keep the temperatures in the tyres behind the Safety Car.”