Fernando Alonso has suggested a strange quirk of the current generation of cars could be behind Formula 1’s safety car drought.
F1 is currently on a nine-race streak without the safety car being brought into play, which is the first time that has happened since the gap between the 2003 Hungarian GP and the 2004 Spanish GP.
It is a run that has also included F1 witnessing its first ever Singapore Grand Prix without the safety car being called into action.
While there is no obvious explanation for why races have been relatively incident-free since the Spanish GP, Alonso has hinted at the characteristics of contemporary ground-effect cars being a factor.
In particular he suggests the fact that the cars are actually faster when not driven to the absolute limit could explain why crashes have been reduced.
“These cars are not easy to drive, but I think the problem of these cars as well is to extract the 100%,” said the Aston Martin driver.
“So if you drive at 90%, sometimes you are faster because you don't put the platform in an inconvenient angle or ride heights. You are not pushing the limits, and it's where everything falls apart. So sometimes driving at 90% is fast.”
Alonso says that the performance of the current cars can get hugely confusing when they are pushed to the edge – which they have to be in qualifying.
“Baku was a very good example,” he added. “I was P15 in Q1, with Lando's problem. If not I was starting 16th in the grand prix and out of Q1.
“Seven minutes later, I put on another set of tyres, and I was P5 in Q2. I improved like 1.1 seconds. I was driving the same.
“I was braking at the same points. It was the same preparation in that lap, but I was able to improve 1.1 seconds. And some of us did the opposite: they were very fast in Q1 and very slow in Q2, and sometimes we don't find explanations of when we are fast, when we are slow, and why.
“If you go into the details and the unlimited number of sensors we have in the car, we can spot the small differences when the car is slow. We put the car in different attitudes that maybe the car is just not happy and this kind of thing.
“That's why sometimes in the races, because we all drive at 90%, we have to take care of the tyres, the fuel economy, all these kind of things, we don't see too many problems and we don't see too many safety cars or accidents.
“The cars are happier when you drive at that speed. It's a little bit against the instinct of the driver which is that you put a new tyre, you go to qualifying and you drive 110% if you can. But, with this car, sometimes it is something that you have to manage.”
