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From Russell's onboard, it looked more like he lifted rather than braking and he got out of the way to give the driver behind as much space as possible... I think K-Mag and Latifi weren't paying attention.
I imagine lifting in an F1 car from going full throttle at those speeds is probably still enough for 1G or so of deceleration. Latifi & Magnussen both managed to slow down in time but Giovonazzi ploughed into them right? Given Latifi/Magnussen were reacting to Russell and Giovonazzi to those Latifi/Magnussen, those reaction times pile up and someone's not going to make it in time.
Haven't had a proper look through all the drivers but initially I thought it was Russell leaving too big a gap then trying to catch that up, and slowing once he got there. Though there's a lot of chat about Ricciardo & Kyvat doing the same.
Regardless, I think Bottas is probably the last person to be blamed as he looked to be pretty consistent regarding his speed and shot off at the last possible moment. Surely that was a predictable behaviour given the length of the start/finish straight.
Edit: This gif is pretty good: https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/ise4i0/all_onboards_radios_on_engines_on_no_commentators/
Still think if anyone's to blame, it's Russell. I'd guess this incident is likely going to lead to some re-thinking about safety car line positioning. Makes sense to put it at the end of the final corner IMO (if the straight is long enough that draft passes on the leader are likely on the restart).
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mmccarthy
Bottas and Russell getting a lot of internet troll stick for the pile-up.
https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/2020_formula_1_sporting_regulations_-_iss_11_-_2020-08-25.pdf
The TV graphics and commentators were saying Safety Car In This Lap, but the lights didn't turn off until the last corner. Regardless of how Bottas would want to lead the restart, he wasn't in control until his only choice was "as late as possible".
I think with a pit straight that drops and rises, the rollhoop cameras give an impression that the driver can see further up the field than they actually can. From Russell's onboard, it looked more like he lifted rather than braking and he got out of the way to give the driver behind as much space as possible... I think K-Mag and Latifi weren't paying attention.
I'd be interested to hear more of what each race engineer was saying to their driver from when the "peleton" exited the last corner up to when all hell broke loose. I know in Indy, drivers have spotters on the radio rather than engineers.
Would the race engineer warning that the cars ahead were not yet racing fall foul of this regulation, or be a reasonable action to prevent an incident?