Mark Webber has slammed the current safety car rules that saw Nelson Piquet Jr. achieve his first podium since entering F1. In a result that was born from the luck of pitting immediately before the safety car was released (following Timo Glock’s accident) in the German Grand Prix, Nelson admits that it is a one-off result for him as he started 17th on the grid for last Sundays race.
Mark Webber goes farther than that:
“The safety car threw up a bizarre result and I think the rules are a joke,†Webber said in his column for the BBC website.
“I was happy for Piquet that he finished second, given the start to the season he has had, but F1 is more professional and better than the rules we have for the safety car at the moment.
“It looks very amateurish when the guy who nearly wins the race starts 17th and only overtakes one car, Kazuki Nakajima’s Williams, because he spun.
“For me, that is not what Formula 1 is all about.
“Nelson would be the first to agree that it was not a fully deserved second place.
“None of the drivers like the current system – we don’t like to get flukey results.
“The teams and the FIA are trying to find a better way with the safety car but they are making heavy weather of it.â€
Adding to Webber’s frustration was the fact that Piquet’s result has put Renault right back into the hunt for fourth place in the constructors’ championship.
“The result of all that is that the battle for fourth in the constructors’ championship is very tight now,†he said.
“There are only two points separating Toyota, Red Bull and Renault.
“One of us will get that place – the best of the rest behind Ferrari, McLaren and BMW – at the end of the season but it is going to be close.â€
