The F1 Safety Car Just Crashed at Monza
The F1 Circus is headed to Italy this week to do battle at Monza, the fastest track on the calendar. Just how harrowing does this high-speed circuit get? Well, one of its most famous corners just took out the safety car.
Rapaz, toda cara do mundo de ter sido uma falha mecânica! Imagina se acontece em uma corrida!
Lembrando que a F1 sempre leva mais de um carro de segurança para as corridas. 😉
🎥: Formula One Management (FOM)#SafetyCar | #ItalianGP | #FormulaOne #Formula1 #F1 pic.twitter.com/BlPNywuSoI
— BOTECO F1 (@sergiosiverly) August 29, 2024
According to Autosport, the safety car—an Aston Martin Vantage F1 Edition—was headed around Parabolica, the final turn of Monza’s 11 corners and also one of its fastest, when driver Bernd Maylander lost control of the car. It went sliding through the asphalt run-off area and careened through the gravel trap, ultimately coming to a rest by slamming into the tire barrier on the outside of the turn. In the above video, the Aston appears to lose its rear end under braking, though no announcement has yet been made as to the cause.
Thankfully, Maylander and his passenger were able to exit the car unaided, though Mylander was seen holding his leg, according to F1 photographer Kym Illman.
At each circuit that F1 visits, Maylander runs a series of at-speed laps in the safety car to perform systems checks and ensure the car will be ready to carry out its duties on track. These laps are part of the regular preparation ahead of a grand prix weekend, so there was nothing out of the ordinary from a process standpoint here. It’s unclear at this time whether the wreck was caused by a mechanical issue or simply driver error.
Because F1 cars are such precision machines and operate at their full potential at extremely high speeds (Monza tends to have the highest average speed of any track on the calendar, somewhere north of 160 mph), the safety car that paces the field during laps where the caution flag is out needs to be incredibly quick itself.
After concerns were raised last season that the Vantage wasn’t quick enough to pace the field, causing the F1 cars to build excessive heat because they couldn’t flow enough air through their vast array of heat exchangers, Aston Martin introduced an upgraded version of the Vantage this year. The enhanced Vantage gained a larger grille opening to hoover up more air, larger turbochargers and new camshafts for the AMG-supplied 4.0-liter V-8, and revised bodywork to aid aerodynamics. The net effect of those engine upgrades juiced the new Vantage with 150 extra horsepower, bringing the final power figure to 656 hp.
We’d bet there’s a spare safety car on site, or within relatively easy reach. F1 never fails to amaze when it comes to the exhaustiveness of its planning for a grand prix weekend. There’s a reason they call this thing a circus. Mylander is a pretty talented driver in his own right, so if we were betting folk, this feels like a one-off incident rather than a precursor to something more ominous.
The race at Monza should be an absolute banger this weekend. McLaren has clearly unlocked something with their car, as last week we saw Lando Norris go to Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix and disappoint the sea of orange fans by trouncing Max Verstappen by nearly 23 seconds. Max, however, still holds a substantial lead in the F1 Drivers’ Championship, 70 points ahead of Norris.
The more interesting battle currently is on the Constructors’ side, where McLaren now only trails Red Bull by 30 points. Verstappen remains a model of consistency and prowess for Red Bull, but his teammate, Sergio Perez, is having an abysmal middle of the season; he hasn’t cracked the top five since May at the Miami Grand Prix. Meanwhile, Norris and his teammate, Oscar Piastri, are routinely dueling for podium spots, enabling McLaren to post many more points per race than Red Bull. With an alarmingly fast car prepped for the fastest circuit on the calendar, look for McLaren to have a banner weekend and possibly draw that Constructors’ Championship raceeven closer.
Ouch. Shoulda let Q do a handling tune on it.
I suspect that the track at Monza intentionally punted off the Aston because it just got pissy and couldn’t deal with another manufacturer from the UK stealing the glory on home turf and couldn’t think of anything better to do. Italian ‘passion’. Ferrari has been waiting for Red Bull to stumble and give them a fighting chance. McLaren apparently has had a different idea and a different approach. – I like Sergio but , at this point, I wonder how Albon would do in that car or Carlo as a bit of a ‘turn around is fair play’ coup.
I feel for the guy. Not the way I’d want to become famous.
Brake failure. Mylander didn’t lose control. He intentionally used a “flick” to put the car in a spin to scrub some speed off, instead of running straight into the wall. Watch his hands go one way slightly, then the other to start the spin.
I wasn’t sure if he was purposely trying to go sideways or the rear end went light upon heavy braking. Either way, Oops!