The Australian Grand Prix was a chaotic affair, with much debate over the decisions taken by the FIA amid three red flag restarts.
With multiple Safety Car deployments and three pauses in the race, Aston Martin nearly ended up leaving Australia pointless when Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll went off the track in Lap 57 following the second restart.
However, a third red flag would save the team’s chances, allowing them to take P3 and P4 when the starting order reverted to the earlier grid.
“There was a bit of uncertainty, but the FIA got it right,” Aston Martin Sporting Director Andy Stevenson said.
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“They’ve learned from things that have happened over the last few years, and they managed the Australian Grand Prix extremely well. They are the only ones with all the information and people need to remember that.
“None of the people who were disagreeing with the red flag in Australia had all information about the condition of the safety barriers, what was happening around the circuit, and where the safety vehicles and doctors were. No one did, except the FIA.”
With multiple restarts bringing the grid back together, Aston Martin had potentially hoped for a repeat of the 2021 Baku Grand Prix, where Sebastian Vettel capitalised on a similarly chaotic race to take second place on the podium.
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“We saw the second red flag and standing start in Australia as an opportunity,” Stevenson explained.
“We had the same thing with Sebastian Vettel a couple of years ago at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Some team members wanted the race stopped and not restarted but Seb was saying, ‘No, we’ve got to get this race restarted.’ He saw it as an opportunity and, in the end, we went from third to second.
“In Australia, we could see that both Fernando and Lance wanted a restart and you think to yourself, ‘OK, we could be on for an even better result here.’ Obviously, it didn’t quite work out that way, at least not immediately after the restart, but it was certainly exciting.”