Brundle: Ending to Italian GP was “painful to watch”

Max Verstappen’s 11th victory of the season came in subdued circumstances with the race ending behind the Safety Car following Daniel Ricciardo’s stoppage on Lap 47.

The marshals struggled to retrieve Ricciardo’s stricken McLaren, prolonging the Safety Car period.

To make matters worse, the Safety Car picked up George Russell, rather than race leader Verstappen, resulting in further delays and a restart not being possible.

The end to the race at Monza has led to widespread discussion about potentially adjusting the FIA’s regulations to avoid a scenario like this occurring again.

One is to put out a red flag to ensure there is a proper ending to the race with another standing start.

Writing in his latest column for Sky Sports F1, Brundle weighed in with his opinion on what happened.

“And then on lap 47 of 53 the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo, who was having a better run than of late at a track where he of course won last year, broke down at the side of the track.

“What followed was a catalogue of problems which ruined the end of the race, not that Leclerc was going to catch Verstappen it must be said. Sainz may have had a look at Russell for the final spot on the podium.

“It was painful to watch. The McLaren was stuck in gear so couldn't be wheeled away after Daniel struggled to find a decent service opening. It's an old school track with poor service road access, and eventually a mobile crane arrived to scoop it up.”

Most recently, the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix was red-flagged with a handful of laps to go following Verstappen’s high-speed tyre blowout. 

This resulted in a dramatic final couple of laps with Lewis Hamilton taking to the run-off at Turn 1 as he tried to get past Sergio Perez into Turn 1.

He added: “There has been an initiative discussed whereby, in the final five laps of a race, if there’s an issue of this kind then throw the red flag and have a standing start re-start. 

“We saw this in Azerbaijan last year and it does make for great anticipation and a thrilling finale to a race. I must say though that for me a red flag means a very serious incident or something like a cloud burst and a waterlogged track.”