The FIA managed the Australian Grand Prix almost flawlessly. Was it correct to have the red flags come out three times (never had a race seen so many)? Self Niels Wittitch, who took over from Michael Masi after the Abu Dhabi 2021 disaster, considered the situation a red flag, why criticize him?
German is one that respect the rules and expect the same from others. The recent news of “his of him” prohibition of celebrations at the wall it's actually nothing new: the rule has always been there but its predecessors have always ignored it. Then there is to say that too it seems to the fans that nothing ever goes well. Criticism rained down at Monza last year for having finished the race behind the safety car, thus "killing" the show. Last Sunday, the show that everyone wanted arrived, but as it happens, it's no longer going well and there should be less dangerous departures and so on.
Advice to the FIA not to undermine its credibility
Putting aside the hypocrisy of the fans, the FIA "refereed" the race quite well, if not for a couple of precautions. There may be red flags to revive the show: NASCAR even increases the race laps in the event of a caution (safety car) in the final stages to always have an open ending. Why, then, theuseless final parade behind the safety car?
Once the order of arrival has been decided (and we'll come back to this shortly), why not declare the race over and thus avoid wasting more minutes for nothing? Also, regarding the final classification, it was decided (as per the regulation) to take thelast survey in which all pilots are present. Too bad it didn't happen that way.
The final classification, in fact, derives from therace order for lap 56before restarting. The last detection in which all the pilots are present, however, is the so-called safety car line 2, just before turn 1. In hindsight, not much would change: the only one to gain a position would be Hulkenberg and for this reason Haas has protested. This shows that, yes, the rules are followed, but there is always something that changes from one race to another and it certainly isn't a source of safety for the teams and the drivers.
Another point that should be clarified is the red flags. Not so much their usefulness as the fact that they have been put with a bit of delay, causing the safety car to come out first and therefore misleading some drivers (see Russell e Sainz). In short, the FIA has received too much criticism after Melbourne, but it has the task of clarify some rules to avoid further undermining your credibility.
