The record holder for most F1 wins, Lewis Hamilton is not happy with how things went down at the Italian Grand Prix 2022.

“It always brings memories back,” stated Hamilton as he hints that his disappointment with the safety car during the race wasn’t very different from his experience at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last year-end.

How things unraveled at the Italian Grand Prix for Lewis Hamilton?

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton started the race at the 19th position and made a remarkable jump to P5 by lap 34. Considering his pace, he could have fought for an even better race finish, but Daniel Ricciardo’s engine trouble at lap 47 brought his progress to a halt.

This prompted the yellow flag which brought out the safety car. However, there was a considerable delay in the recovery vehicle clearing Honey Badger’s car from the pit straight. This, thereafter, affected the race time and mobility of the drivers, especially for drivers like Hamilton, who had been making great time.

The dramatic Italian Grand Prix then ended with the Safety car in the lead with Max Verstappen finishing first, Charles Leclerc in P2 followed by George Russell in P3.

This brought back a rather familiar disappointment for Hamilton from Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last year. Wherein Max Verstappen overtook him to win his first title after the last lap of safety car reset.

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Race Director Michael Masi was criticized for not following the rules accurately, which debatably may have given Verstappen a biased upper hand.

Lewis Hamilton takes a slight dig at Max Verstappen post the 2022 Italian Grand Prix drama

“There’s only one time in the history of the sport where they haven’t done the rules like that today and that’s the one where it changed the result of the championship. But it is what it is,” said Lewis Hamilton, in his post-race interview.

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Ferrari Boss man Mattia Binotto exclaimed, “I was a bit disappointed for the ending, finishing behind a safety car is never great for F1, the show.”

He went on to add, “There was plenty of time for the FIA to act differently today. It was fully safe to run on the track towards the end, to wait so much is simply wrong.”

“We need to have discussions on how to improve because the aim should be to restart the race as soon as possible. The FIA need more experience, but they need to do a better job because F1 deserves it.”

What did the FIA had to say about this?

Soon after, the FIA released a statement that read, “While every effort was made to recover car No 3 (Ricciardo’s) quickly and resume racing, the situation developed and marshals were unable to put the car into neutral and push it into the escape road.”

“As the safety of the recovery operation is our only priority and the incident was not significant enough to require a red flag, the race ended under the Safety Car following the procedures agreed between the FIA and all competitors. The timing of the Safety Car period within a race has no bearing on this procedure.”

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With the ever-growing drama in F1, we’re forever on the edge of our seats. But was it fair to conclude the race under the Safety Car? Or should the FIA have red flagged the race, not only giving the drivers a chance to race but also keeping them out of the danger of accidentally hitting the recovery vehicle?