Crucial Safety Car malfunction revealed by cooldown room chat in Qatar

A big problem with the Safety Car was noted in the cooldown room after the F1 Qatar Grand Prix.

A chaotic race at the Lusail International Circuit warranted three Safety Car stints, including one after punctures to Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz.

But Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri all noticed the same problem when they met in the cooldown room.

Safety Car problem at F1 Qatar Grand Prix?

Piastri said: “The lights on the Safety Car weren’t going off!”

A seemingly baffled Leclerc shrugged with disbelief.

Piastri said: “The second one, where we all went into the last corner, I had no idea what was going to happen…”

Race winner Verstappen then entered the room.

Leclerc said to Verstappen: “We were saying, what was going on with the Safety Car?”

Verstappen agreed: “Yeah, they were broken!

“That’s why I got confused. I was like ‘what should I do?’

“Of course I knew they would go out.

“I knew they were out, but were still on, in a way…”

The trio rewatched highlights of the race, including the debris from Alex Albon’s Williams which added chaos.

“He drove straight over the mirror. The Sauber,” Verstappen noticed.

Verstappen and rival Lando Norris were deprived of an excited head-to-head battle when the McLaren driver was hit with a 10-second time penalty, and was forced to drop back in the order.

Verstappen was asked about his overtake of Norris at the start: “Did you guys touch?”

He answered: “No, we were very close.”