The Monza Mayhem: Unpacking F1’s Controversial 2022 Italian Grand Prix Safety Car Finish
The 2022 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix concluded under an unexpected cloud of confusion and frustration, as the much-anticipated late-race restart never materialized. What should have been a thrilling sprint to the finish at Monza, a circuit renowned for high-speed action and dramatic conclusions, instead fizzled out behind the Safety Car. This outcome left drivers, teams, and fans alike questioning the sport’s procedures and sparked a significant debate about the handling of race control in critical moments.
As the final laps ticked away, the top contenders were poised for a decisive showdown. Drivers like Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, and George Russell had strategically pitted, fitting fresh tires in preparation for what they believed would be a nail-biting conclusion. Lewis Hamilton, running fifth, opted to stay out, hoping to capitalize on track position. Yet, despite their readiness, the race remained under Safety Car conditions, ultimately finishing without a single green-flag racing lap following the incident that triggered the intervention.
A Race Against Time: Ricciardo’s Stranded McLaren Triggers Chaos
The pivotal moment arrived six laps before the scheduled end of the race when Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren ground to a halt between Turns 6 and 7. The incident immediately prompted double yellow flags, signaling danger on track and the imminent deployment of the Safety Car. The rapid response from race control indicated the seriousness of the situation, but what followed was a series of unfortunate events and procedural delays that ultimately sealed the fate of the race.
The initial radio communications captured the immediate impact and the teams’ strategic thinking:
| Lap: 47/53 | |||||||
| Bonnington | So we have double yellow between turns six and seven, Ricciardo stopped. Right-hand side, exit turn six, Ricciardo car stopped. | Musconi | So you’re entering yellow, yellow. Recap of stop the rate of sight. After six. | Verstappen | I see a car stopped. | Marcos Padros | Double yellow, turn seven. Double yellow, turn seven. Switch position yellow. Switch position yellow. And flap update when you can. |
| Bonnington | Let us know about… Safety Car, Safety Car, keep the delta positive. Let us know about restart, there are two cars in your windows. We have six laps remaining. | Russell | What are we doing? | Lambiase | If you see Safety Car or VSC, pit, Max. Stay out for now. | ||
| Hamilton | Tyres should be okay. Are they… car behind me is going to have better rear, that’s for sure. | Musconi | So be on standby. So remember if it’s Safety Car you’re in, VSC you’re staying out. | ||||
| Bonnington | Yep, don’t know if Norris will take it, he will lose track position. | Musconi | Safety Car! Box. Box. Box. Box. Box. Box. Box. Box. Box. So nice and easy, stop on your marks. | ||||
| Hamilton | [Unclear] depends how long this is out for. Depends how long this is out for. | ||||||
| Bonnington | Keep the delta tight. So we’ll stay out. Stay out, stay out. Go strat mode one, just keep tight on that delts. | ||||||
The decision to pit was immediate for many, including Russell, Verstappen, and Leclerc, who had the opportunity to dive into the pit lane before the Safety Car officially took to the track. Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, made the calculated decision to remain on track, anticipating a potential competitive advantage if a quick restart occurred. However, the subsequent events swiftly turned the initial strategy calls into a mere preamble for procedural confusion.
The Safety Car Mix-Up: Where Did It Go Wrong?
The core of the problem stemmed from the Safety Car’s deployment. Instead of positioning itself in front of the race leader, Max Verstappen, the Safety Car emerged ahead of third-placed George Russell. This misplacement created an immediate bottleneck and initiated a cascading series of delays that ultimately consumed the remaining laps of the race. The FIA regulations clearly state that the Safety Car will join the track “regardless of where the leader is,” and then the cars between the Safety Car and the leader are typically allowed to un-lap themselves.
Upon rejoining the track and catching the Safety Car, Russell found himself in an unenviable position. Mercedes informed him he should be permitted to overtake the Safety Car, but the crucial green light signal from the FIA observer, which authorizes such a move, was conspicuously absent. Russell himself voiced his confusion, ready to take matters into his own hands before being advised by his team to adhere strictly to the rules. This moment underscored the fundamental breakdown in communication and adherence to established protocols.
Meanwhile, behind Russell, Charles Leclerc and Ferrari were eagerly hoping for a restart. Their radio messages reveal an optimistic outlook, banking on at least three or four racing laps once the field was correctly ordered:
| Lap: 48/53 | |||||||
| Bonnington | So stay on the delta. So Perez has stayed out, Norris has pitted. | Musconi | So looks like everybody stopped. All clear on exit, you’re not racing cars on exit. You’re going to be following your delta. So on the soft we took two more holes of flap. So keep the delta positive. The positive. | Lambiase | Okay Max so there’s yellows at six and seven. Safety Car deployed. Safety Car deployed. So dash positive, target plus one. So Daniel has stopped between six and seven. | Marcos Padros | And Safety Car deployed, stay positive. And SOC six. |
| Hamilton | Position? | Musconi | So end of this lap it will be five laps remaining. So you can go by you’re not the leads, you can go by the safety car. | Verstappen | Can we make a free stop? | Leclerc | We are… let me know what to do. |
| Bonnington | So currently P5. | Russell | Are you sure I can overtake the Safety Car? | Lambiase | Yes. Just make sure you’re on your delta, plus one. Just focus on your position when you stop. | Marcos Padros | I will look. |
| Hamilton | Is Perez on brand new tyres?. | Musconi | If there’s a green light on top. | Verstappen | Is Leclerc still, he has a soft right, or not? | Leclerc | Otherwise I know what to do. Verstappen has a Safety Car gap stop? |
| Bonnington | Five-lap-old tyres. Just try and keep T-water up if you can. Going to pick the Safety Car, up you can see it’s just ahead of you, but stay on that delta. | Russell | There’s a yellow light on top. | Lambiase | Yes. Just focus on your pit stop now Max. We’ll go through the rest of the race in a moment. So box this lap. Focus on your marks. Strat 12 in pit lane. We’re expecting Charles to come in as well. | Marcos Padros | We do not gain position if we stay out. So stop this lap, box this lap. |
| Musconi | They should wave you through. | Leclerc | Copy. Are we losing? | ||||
| Russell | Copy that, I will overtake the Safety Car. | Marcos Padros | No we are not losing position. And we’ll stop for used soft, used soft. | ||||
| Musconi | So stay behind, stay behind. So cool the PU. So when the lights are going green, they should wave you through. Use brake magic when you can. So Verstappen the leader is at turn five. So five laps to go. | Leclerc | Copy that. | ||||
| Marcos Padros | We believe we’ll have three or four laps after the Safety Car, racing laps. And box now box pit confirm. | ||||||
| Leclerc | Copy. | ||||||
Procedural Delays and the Unmovable McLaren
Compounding the Safety Car’s initial error was the unexpected difficulty in recovering Daniel Ricciardo’s stricken McLaren. Marshals on the scene quickly discovered that the car was stuck in gear, preventing them from simply pushing it into an escape road. This required the deployment of a crane, a process that inherently consumes more time and requires heightened safety precautions. This unforeseen complication tied up resources and attention, further delaying the re-ordering of the field.
The FIA later issued a statement explaining that the recovery of Ricciardo’s car was the primary reason for the lack of a restart. An FIA spokesperson clarified: “While every effort was made to recover car number three [Ricciardo] quickly and resume racing, the situation developed and marshals were unable to put the car into neutral and push it into the escape road. As the safety of the recovery operation is our only priority, and the incident was not significant enough to require a red flag, the race ended under Safety Car following the procedures agreed between the FIA and all competitors. The timing of the Safety Car period within a race has no bearing on this procedure.”
Team Frustration and Calls for Improvement
Despite the FIA’s explanation, several teams expressed their dissatisfaction, believing that the issues extended beyond just the recovery of Ricciardo’s car. Alan Permane, Alpine’s Sporting Director, vocalized a common sentiment: “That wasn’t the problem with the Safety Car procedure. It looks like the Safety Car picked up the wrong car. But that’s quite easy to rectify very early on and I don’t quite understand why they toured around and then let everyone form up. I need to look at it, I don’t want to bad-mouth race control or anything, but I think we had something like six, seven laps to go when it came out so I would have thought a couple of laps to form up and a lap or two to let the lapped cars overtake and then you’ve got a three-lap sprint or something, which would have been quite entertaining. So I don’t know what went wrong with it.”
Permane’s comments highlight the belief that even with the recovery challenge, there was ample time to correctly reorder the field and allow for a racing finish. The procedural lapse in guiding the Safety Car to the correct leader significantly contributed to the time wasted, eroding the possibility of a thrilling conclusion.
On lap 49, the teams continued to try and make sense of the situation on track:
| Lap: 49/53 | |||||||
| Hamilton | Is anyone else ahead pitted? | Musconi | So green three position four. Following the Safety Car, Verstappen the leader it’s still at Safety Car line two. And Leclerc P2 at turn one. | Lambiase | Strap three, strat three. White line on the exit and still follow the delta, please. Follow the delta. Recharge on. Keep working the tyres, Max. Okay so the Safety Car is stopped on the entry to turn 11 and it will pick you up. Correction, that’s a GPS error. Safety Car we believe is at turn three. | Marcos Padros | Copy. And diff in zero when you can. And we need mode Safety, charge button off. And Verstappen in front pitted for soft. And secondary KC position eight when you can. KC8. |
| Bonnington | So Leclerc and Sainz, also George has pitted. That car’s still not moved. Do what you can on T-water. So there’s now a crane on-track and marshals and they haven’t moved that car yet. | Russell | Did he pit, I presume? | Verstappen | So, tyre update? | ||
| Musconi | They all pitted. They all stopped. [Unclear] Four laps to go for you. So there’s a crane on-track at turn six and marshals as well. That’s on the right-hand side. | Lambiase | So Leclerc pitted for a scrubbed soft. Russell has also pitted for a scrubbed soft. Sainz for a new soft. | ||||
The Fading Hope of a Restart
Finally, after considerable delay, George Russell received the long-awaited signal to overtake the Safety Car. However, this was merely the first step in a lengthy reordering process. Russell and all the other cars incorrectly positioned behind the Safety Car had to complete a full lap, pass the Safety Car, and then rejoin the back of the queue. This complex and time-consuming procedure further diminished the precious few laps remaining in the race, making a restart increasingly improbable.
As the race moved into lap 50, the uncertainty hung heavy in the air, with drivers and teams still desperate for clarity:
| Lap: 50/53 | |||||||
| Bonnington | So you’ll be allowed to pass. | Musconi | So if you got the green light, you’re going by. | Lambiase | Okay we’re free to start to catch the Safety Car. Keep working the tyres, Max, as much as you can. | Leclerc | When will we restart? |
| Hamilton | Why are we passing? | Russell | Will we get any racing? | Lambiase | Okay this was 50 laps complete, three remain. Okay there is a crane on track at six and seven, Max. Keep working the tyres as best as you can. So the Safety Car is now releasing the remainder of the cars and is waiting to pick you up. It’s currently entry turn eight. You may also expect… I’ll let you know if lapped cars are going to come through behind you. Just stay on racing line for the moment. | Marcos Padros | We are checking if we are restarting, we’ll let you know. Next car in front Tsunoda is catching the back of the pack at the moment. Safety Car is in turn four, five. And there’s a crane on truck at turn six and seven. Crane on-track at turn, six, seven. |
| Bonnington | It basically looks like they picked up the wrong car for race leader. So an awful lot of cars have got to make their way back around. So don’t work… | Musconi | Please repeat. You can go strat five and pushing. | ||||
By the time the field was finally beginning to reorder itself correctly, hope for a restart had all but vanished. Mercedes, for one, expressed serious doubts about any further green-flag racing. This sentiment was echoed across the paddock as the clock ticked mercilessly towards the predetermined race distance.
Lap 51 saw the dawning realization that the race would likely end under Safety Car conditions:
| Lap: 51/53 | |||||||
| Hamilton | Who’s in front of me? Sainz? | Russell | Will there be any racing laps? | Leclerc | Copy that. | ||
| Bonnington | It’s a backmarker, Magnussen. | Musconi | We don’t think so. But get your tyres ready for that. So Safety Car, P1 and P2 are at the Parabolica. They have only two laps left. Very unlikely we’ll go again. | Marcos Padros | We need driver default bravo four, seven on. Bravo four, seven on. So Verstappen now is right behind the Safety Car now. | ||
| Hamilton | No it’s a Ferrari mate. | Musconi | So entering a yellow yellow, caution there. | Leclerc | How many laps left? | ||
| Bonnington | Sorry, year. So it is Sainz ahead and then we’ve got Magnussen ahead of him. | Russell | Where’s the leader? | Marcos Padros | Two laps left. Charge button on and mode race. | ||
| Hamilton | Who’s P1? | Musconi | Leaders are at turn four. So it’s saying clear in track in sector eight and nine. | ||||
| Bonnington | So it’s Verstappen P1, Leclerc P2, George P3. | ||||||
| Hamilton | How many laps left? | ||||||
| Bonnington | So we have two to go. | ||||||
| Hamilton | We’re P5? | ||||||
Leclerc’s Frustration and Calls for Rule Changes
As the final lap approached, the outcome became clear. Max Verstappen, diligently following the Safety Car, voiced his concern about its slow pace, an understandable sentiment for a driver eager to push for a victory. However, the opportunity for any further racing was gone. Charles Leclerc’s frustration was palpable, his hopes for challenging Verstappen for the win at his home race dashed by procedural delays.
The final laps were characterized by increasing resignation and disappointment among the drivers and teams:
| Lap: 52/53 | |||||||
| Bonnington | Affirm. P5. So Lewis we believe this is going to wait until all cars have caught up. Likely to finish behind Safety Car. | Russell | It’ll be last lap next lap. | Lambiase | Keep working the tyres, Max. | Leclerc | They should let the cars overtake, the Alfa Romeo and the AlphaTauri. |
| Hamilton | Okay. | Musconi | So they’re going to wait for all the cars to bunch up and they’re going to finish under Safety Car. Safety Car turn seven. | Verstappen | Safety Car can go a bit faster, we’re only going 180. | Marcos Padros | Understood. We are asking for that. |
| Bonnington | So Safety Car exiting turn 11 now. | Russell | Shall we go strat one, then? | Lambiase | Understood. Doing a good job with the tyres for the moment, so keep it going. The lapped cars are yet to be released. So we’re still waiting for the lapped cars to get released and then it would be the lap after. So not looking like this could restart at the moment. Still so my message about the lapped cars being allowed to overtake. | Marcos Padros | And we will finish the race behind the Safety Car. |
| Bonnington | So this is final lap, final lap, it will finish under the Safety Car. | Musconi | Doesn’t make a hell of a difference. So it doesn’t look like we’ll be catching them. So it’ll be the last lap, we’re not going to race again. Not going to resume racing. We can go strat one. Safety Car halfway between 10 and 11. Safety Car braking for 11. | Verstappen | Yeah, yeah. | Leclerc | Come on. It’s clear, come on. |
| Lambiase | Okay Max so the race will finish behind the Safety Car. So one more lap to go. It will finish behind the Safety Car. As you’re aware it will pit at the end of the next lap and you will just take the chequered flag. | Marcos Padros | Yeah, copy. | ||||
| Verstappen | Okay. | Leclerc | Yeah, copy, push, it’s cleared now. | ||||
| Marcos Padros | Yeah, we are doing it. | ||||||
The anti-climactic finish prompted immediate discussion and calls for procedural reform. Charles Leclerc passionately expressed his disappointment, calling the situation “a joke” and questioning why a sport of Formula 1’s caliber couldn’t manage a restart on a seemingly clear track. Lewis Hamilton suggested fundamental changes, proposing that the race should be extended in such scenarios to ensure a competitive finish. This incident brought back memories of other controversial Safety Car finishes and reignited debates about how F1 balances safety with the desire for exciting, racing conclusions.
On the final lap, the raw emotions were evident:
| Lap: 53/53 | |||||||
| Hamilton | In situations like this they should just extend the race. | Musconi | So you’re starting the last lap. So we got the message: Safety Car in this lap but there will be no racing. So Safety Car will enter the pit lane, you’re staying on-track and there’s no racing. We try to keep water up to 100. That’s another podium. Green one, position 14. | Lambiase | Start eight, Max. | Marcos Padros | So this is the last lap, okay. At the end of the lap, the Safety Car will come in to the pits and we cannot overtake. |
| Hamilton | Remember bump, two. Bump in turn two. | Verstappen | What’s that? | Leclerc | It’s a joke, it’s a joke. It’s a big joke. The track was clear. Come on, come on. We are a Formula 1, what are we doing? Anyway. That’s it I guess. | ||
| Hamilton | Yeah copy that, Lewis, we’ll note that. | Lambiase | Strat eight, please, strat eight. Safety Car in this lap and there’s no racing until the end. | Marcos Padros | So Safety Car in this lap and we need to stay on-track and cross the start and finish line. No overtaking. | ||
| Bonnington | So Lewis just as a reminder the Safety Car will enter the pits but we’ll stay out to take the flag. No overtaking until the line. | Verstappen | I can leave a gap now, yeah? Lights are out. | Leclerc | Yeah, I know. | ||
| Lambiase | That’s correct. Fail 84, please, fail 84. You deserve to win today, well done. | ||||||
| Bonnington | Great job. Great job today. Back up to P5, kept the faith. | Russell | Well done, team. Good result, definitely not great pace. But good points on the board. | Verstappen | Very lovely mate. Great race that again. And you won your home grand prix. | Marcos Padros | Copy. |
| Hamilton | Mega job, guys. Really mega job. Thank you so much for keeping the faith in me. Sorry for the damage, but got some points on the board. | Horner | Well done Max, you deserved that victory. It’s a shame it didn’t get going at the end there. But you were the fastest car all weekend so well done, mate. | ||||
| Wolff | Lewis P19 to P5, not bad! | Verstappen | Yeah, we nailed it. Great job, guys. We had a great race car. | ||||
Conclusion: A Missed Opportunity and a Call for Clarity
The 2022 Italian Grand Prix provided a stark reminder of the complexities and potential pitfalls of Formula 1’s Safety Car procedures. While safety is, and always should be, the paramount concern, the manner in which the race concluded left a bitter taste. The confluence of a mispositioned Safety Car, a stubborn car recovery, and the subsequent procedural delays robbed fans of a thrilling racing spectacle and sparked widespread calls for a review of F1’s rules to ensure such scenarios are handled more efficiently and transparently in the future. The FIA’s commitment to continuous improvement will be tested as they address these concerns, aiming to uphold the excitement and integrity that fans expect from Grand Prix racing.
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