The FIA has explained why the safety car was going as slow as it was after several drivers complained about the slowness of Aston Martin’s Vantage safety car.

After Sebastian Vettel crashed out on Lap 28, the safety car was dispatched to bunch up the field as the marshals removed Vettel’s sad and sorry-looking AMR22.

But as the safety car toured around at a leisurely pace, Mick Schumacher nearly ploughed into the back of Yuki Tsunoda on the front straight after the Japanese driver had slowed right down with the pair making a trip to the stewards after the race to explain why they nearly collided.

Reigning World champion Max Verstappen was far from impressed with the pace of the Vantage when he spoke to the media after the race calling the green coupe a ‘turtle’.

“There's so little grip, and also the safety car was driving so slow, it was like a turtle. Unbelievable. To drive 140 (km/h) on the back straight, there was not a damaged car, so I don't understand why we have to drive so slowly. We have to investigate.”

“For sure, the Mercedes safety car is faster because of the extra aero because this Aston Martin is really slow. It definitely needs more grip because our tyres were stone cold. it's pretty terrible the way we are driving behind the safety car at the moment."

Race winner Charles Leclerc was also not happy with the safety car’s pace, but unlike Verstappen, he chose not to complain after seeing how much sliding safety car driver Bernd Mayländer was doing in the Vantage.

“To be honest, it always feels too slow in the car because with those Formula 1 cars, we have so much grip, and it's very, very difficult, especially on the compound we were all on, which was the hards.”

“I was struggling massively to put some temperature in them, so I also struggled. To be honest, I wanted to complain, but then I checked how much the safety car was sliding in the corner, and I don't think there was anything more that he could give, so I didn't want to put too much pressure.”

The FIA released a statement earlier today explaining why the safety car was going so slow in Melbourne. They said that the pace of the safety car wasn’t dictated by Mayländer or the car’s limitations but rather by race control, which the FIA said had a duty to clear the incident in the safest possible manner rather than having to worry about the drivers' tyre temperatures.

“In light of recent comments regarding the pace of the FIA Formula 1 Safety Car, the FIA would like to reiterate that the primary function of the FIA Formula 1 Safety Car is, of course, not outright speed, but the safety of the drivers, marshals and officials.  The Safety Car procedures take into account multiple objectives, depending upon the incident in question, including the requirement to ‘bunch up’ the field, negotiate an incident recovery or debris on (the) track in a safe manner and adjust the pace depending on recovery activities that may be ongoing in a different part of the track.”

“The speed of the Safety Car is therefore generally dictated by Race Control and not limited by the capabilities of the Safety Cars, which are bespoke high-performance vehicles prepared by two of the world’s top manufacturers, equipped to deal with changeable track conditions at all times and driven by a hugely experienced and capable driver and co-driver.”

“The impact of the speed of the safety car on the performance of the cars following is a secondary consideration, as the impact is equal amongst all competitors who, as is always the case, are responsible for driving in a safe manner at all times according to the conditions of their car and the circuit.”