F1 Mexican GP – The Virtual Safety Car controversy that could decide the World Championship. Carlo Vanzini criticizes the Virtual Safety Car at the end of the Mexican GP.

Could the Virtual Safety Car at the Mexican Grand Prix end up deciding the fate of the Formula 1 World Championship? That’s the question raised by Sky Sport F1 commentator Carlo Vanzini after a controversial end to the race in Mexico City.

Oscar Piastri, following the race, found himself overtaken in the Drivers’ Championship by Lando Norris by just one point. Meanwhile, Max Verstappen, despite a less-than-perfect qualifying, managed to gain four points over the McLaren pair, reducing his deficit from 40 to 36 points. However, that gap could have been even smaller. The Red Bull driver showed strong pace on the soft tyres, closing in on Charles Leclerc’s DRS range. At that moment, the Ferrari driver was struggling with medium tyres and Verstappen’s overtake seemed inevitable — until Carlos Sainz Jr. went off track, triggering first double yellow flags and then a Virtual Safety Car.

For the Italian Sky Sport F1 commentator Carlo Vanzini, that late VSC was nothing short of a “disgrace.”

The Virtual Safety Car froze the positions at the Mexican GP

According to Vanzini, speaking in a video on his YouTube channel, the decision to deploy a Virtual Safety Car in the closing stages of the Mexican Grand Prix directly influenced the results, benefiting some drivers while harming others. “The VSC is a disgrace,” said Carlo Vanzini. “It definitely helped Leclerc to hold on to second place. It deprived us of a duel with Verstappen, it certainly helped Bearman to keep fourth place ahead of Piastri, and it helped Norris to become the leader of the championship. Otherwise, if Piastri had passed Bearman, he would now be leading the standings. But really, it’s a disgrace.”

He continued: “Why do I say it’s a disgrace, this late Virtual Safety Car? Because Sainz spun, and he himself put the car off track, not even in the escape area. That’s a 60 km/h corner, 100 metres long. So just a double yellow flag would have been enough.”

Should Verstappen have been penalized under double yellow flags?

Carlo Vanzini also highlighted something Charles Leclerc told his race engineer during the incident: “Under double yellow flags, when Bryan Bozzi says, ‘There’s a double yellow,’ Leclerc looks in his mirrors and sees Verstappen not slowing down, gaining about four tenths right there. Basically, that should have been a penalty for Max Verstappen, but apparently no one noticed it — or maybe only Leclerc saw it in his mirrors.”

Carlo Vanzini concluded by strongly criticizing the timing and necessity of the VSC: “That Virtual Safety Car cries out for revenge — it could end up deciding the championship. It made absolutely no sense.”