Credits: IMAGO / NurPhoto
In a rare and bizarre turn of events, the F1 safety car — an Aston Martin Vantage — crashed into the barriers at the Parabolica corner of the Monza circuit on Thursday, even before the Italian Grand Prix weekend officially began.
The incident took place during a routine high-speed test run, which is conducted to ensure the safety car is in proper condition before the race weekend. The crash caught everyone by surprise since it was being driven by Bernd Maylander, who has been behind the wheel of a Safety Car since 2000.
Fortunately, both Maylander and the passenger, who remains unnamed as of now, came out of the crash unharmed. Aston Martin has confirmed that they are investigating the cause of the accident but assured that a backup safety car is available for the rest of the weekend.
When F1 photojournalist Kym Illman shared news of the crash on Instagram, fans quickly found a humorous angle as they couldn’t help but draw a connection to Logan Sargeant‘s recent dismissal from the Williams team.
One fan joked, “Damn it! Logan already found a new job?!”, highlighting Sargeant’s reputation for being crash-prone. Others also chimed in with some witty comments with one fan suggesting, “We need a Safety car for the Safety car”, poking fun at the irony of the situation.
Meanwhile, another fan took a jab at Aston Martin, saying, “In the Mercedes, this probably wouldn’t have happened.” However, this isn’t the first time the Safety Car or the Medical Car has crashed in F1 history.
A few rare occurrences when the Safety and Medical car crashed in F1
While the primary purpose of the Safety Car and the Medical Car is to keep the drivers safe, there have been a few notable incidents in the past when they have done the opposite of this. For example, at the 1995 Monaco Grand Prix, a Renault Clio safety car crashed into Taki Inoue’s car while it was being towed back to the pits.
Just a few months later, at the 1995 Hungarian Grand Prix, Inoue was hit by the medical car when he ran across the track to retrieve a fire extinguisher, resulting in him landing on the car’s bonnet.
Another incident occurred during the 2000 Monaco Grand Prix when Brazilian ex-F1 driver Alex Ribeiro was driving the medical car with F1 doctor, Sid Watkins, as his passenger. The car crashed into the barriers while making a turn at Tabac, however, both Ribeiro and Watkins were unharmed.
