FIA Formula E race director Scot Elkins insisted his team took “all safety measures into account” during the late Safety Car in the Diriyah E-Prix.
The second race of the weekend in Saudi Arabia was cut short after Alexander Sims spun his Mahindra at turn six with just under ten minutes of race time remaining, prompting the Safety Car to be deployed.
However, there were concerning scenes when a telehandler vehicle sent to recover Sims’s car appeared to block the circuit, causing the Safety Car and the field following it to bunch up suddenly and leading to several drivers hitting cars in front. Robert Frijns later described the incident as “quite dangerous”.
Then, as Sims’s vehicle was being recovered, cars appeared to pass alarmingly close to the dangling Mahindra, with Mitch Evans’s car driving past while the suspended car was in line with the Halo safety device on his Jaguar.
Asked by RaceFans about the late Safety Car and the decision not to red flag the race, Elkins…