quovadis
Honorary Master
Yeah that SC was another example of an FIA screw up. Seems the consensus is that it wouldn't have changed the outcome based on Lando and Max's pace but no way to no for sure.I wanted to get all my facts first before giving this safety car opinion.
Let me start by saying that last night was the happiest I have been for a Max P2 (read: Max non win) - so stoked for Lando to get his first win. Maclaren certainly had superior pace and tyre deg over everyone else in the field - hats off to them and their big Miami upgrade. Lando finally got a truckload of luck and it paid off (safety car).
Now onto my opinion (after having watched the tracker and onboards on F1TV again). The safety car error was responsible for Lando being able to pit and retain the lead. The safety car should never have picked up Max and because it did, it increased the gap between Max and Lando from the 11second when the safety car was thrown, to over 30 seconds when Lando exited the pitlane. Why? Because Lando was just past the pit exit when the SC was thrown, so he had clean air to do a full lap around while Max had to sit at SC speed around the whole lap after being picked up at corner 3/4. This allowed Lando to build a massive space for a pitstop.
If the safety car had waited at pit exit and rather entered the track during the Lando pitstop, it would then have picked up either Lando or Max - but it would have been a very tight pitstop race with the 11 second gap that had existed before the yellows and SC.
Now, let's say Max had jumped Lando during the Lando pitstop. Would he have held onto the lead? Debatable because Lando's 7 second winning margin is telling - there is a very real chance that Max may have been overtaken by Lando.
Nevertheless, Lando had the pace, he had the luck of the SC (not the SC mistake, just genuine luck of staying out long until a SC) and he drove like a machine. Well earned and great to see all of the drivers congratulating him.
Side note - my 2 hour afternoon nap yesterday is paying dividends today.
Highlight - Max in the cooldown room watching his torpedo team-mate almost shunt him (Sky F'ed this up royally with the Ted interview, thank goodness I re-watched the whole thing on F1TV)!
Edit: Buxton weighed in on it too:

