F1 safety car driver Bernd Maylander answers your questions

Aston Martin invited The Race to drive the F1 safety and medical cars at Silverstone last month ahead of the British Grand Prix.

I (Josh Suttill, hello!) got behind the wheel of both cars (can confirm they're bloody impressive) and I also had some time to put some of your questions to Bernd Maylander (safety car driver since 2000) and one of the medical car drivers Karl Reindler (an A1 GP podium finisher for those who remember).

I've included a transcript of our chat below.

Dave Peal asks: “Are you able to enjoy driving the car or are you just very focused on the job? If so, which is your favourite circuit to drive?”  

Maylander: It’s a combination; if you have to deploy in a race, depends on the situation. If there’s a car in the gravel and we’re doing our three laps and then done, the information comes from race control ‘safety car deployed’, we deploy, catch the leader, then in one way, you have fun, but you have to keep an eye on it in the mirror, on the GPS map that they’re bunched together, nicely lined up.

It’s a combination from communication, getting information, what’s going on. What we have to do. Whether we have to drive a little bit slower because we want to get in this lap, so that means you’re not going flat-out, so you’re driving 80% for example or if you really know let’s go for another lap, then you’re pushing even more, that the drivers behind can be in the tyre window of temperature, that’s what they’re mostly focused on, to get the brakes in the right temperature to be ready for the restart.

Sometimes we’re going very slowly if the track is blocked by debris. That’s mostly the moment when some drivers complain ‘the safety car is too slow', because they don’t know this information maybe. Wet conditions are always tricky but I like it because it’s even more information that you have to give to race control. It’s a nice combination of everything but for sure you don’t like in one way if something big happens on track, that’s not a nice moment. But even then you have to do your job as much as possible. I like what I’m doing, but it’s a proper team work because it’s a lot related to communication, experience, you know what you have to do. It’s kind of a feeling. For [Karl] it’s definitely different. 

Reindler: It depends on the time and place for me, there’s a lot of pressure if there’s been a major accident of course. You’re concentrating at the job at hand, but there’s absolutely moments that I enjoy…I love what I do. I have fun. I feel like there’s a stigma almost in having fun in a high pressure job but I’m a firm believer that if you enjoy what you do, you’ll do a better job of it.

The track tests are always fun because there’s no pressure on the track tests. Other than the fact there’s a lot of people watching and race control and you still have to do a job. We’re driving incredible cars at incredible circuits. I have pinch myself moments where I think how lucky am I to do this?

Then there’s some moments where it’s a bit more intense, if there’s a major accident you need to make quick decisions, difficult decisions, that’s when the communication becomes so important, the trust in the team, the teamwork. 

My favourite circuit to drive? I love driving the DBX around street circuits so much, but strangely my two favourite circuits - I’m going to pick two - old-school ones, Suzuka, cannot go past Suzuka, it’s just an amazing circuit. And I love Imola, it’s got history but to drive it has a beautiful flow to it, so probably my two favourite but every street circuit is fun. 

Maylander: Suzuka is my favourite too but before Imola I’d put Sao Paulo. Really nice flow. 

Stuart Coulter asks: Is it frustrating when the drivers complain about how slow the safety car is going (particularly in wet weather) when in actual fact, you're driving to the safety car's full capability?
Maylander: It’s up to the situation and what happens on track and what the reason is for the deployment. If you have a blocked track, you have to give marshals time to. The only way to make that happen is by driving slower. 

Reindler: Your job is to protect the marshals. 

Maylander: Yeah to protect the marshals and the people behind me as well. That’s not in our hands, the communications between teams and drivers, they should know it because they get many things on the display. When I’m in front, what happens there and the reason we’re not going flat-out or why we’re not going quicker. At the beginning of the race it’s easier because they’re all together, then in end of the race like in Barcelona, the cars are completely [spread out] so we have to bunch them together before the restart and that takes a while. Not all the journalists are updated in the right way. They say ‘why is the safety car another lap out?’. Because now we have to allow the lapped cars to unlap themselves and that takes a while. It was really quickly done in Barcelona, but still we have to give them a few meters distance to the leader and sometimes that takes another lap.

Reindler: And you can’t unlap them until the scene of the incident is clear because they’re going at full pace to catch. It’s a rule F1 teams wanted too. 

Maylander: It’s not always up to the FIA, it’s up to the rules and that can take a while. The rules are done not only by the FIA, but 10 F1 teams, F1 and the FIA.

Reindler: We’re all playing by the rules, us included! 

Ian Handley asks: Have you ever nearly "lost it" in a race, and if so which one?

StevieNoises asks: Have there ever been any close calls that weren't noticed on camera? Ever get a bit loose in the wet or a bit close to a wall?

Maylander: Sometimes. We always try to come in as quick as possible to let them run again and if there’s still a tractor on-track lifting a car away, and we get the information, that will be a late call to get prepared. If I’m ready before and get ready to switch lights off, for sure you’re not going flat-out because you want to help them, that means you’re not driving 95%, you’re driving 80% to be on the safe side for the late call. That’s what you have to learn. For sure as an ex-race driver you always love to go as quick as possible, and we can go quicker, but we have to slow down, stay cool, think what is our job and wait for the late call, then you get late call, then you can speed up again and go into the pitlane as quick as possible and back to your parking position, ready. 

Reindler: For us in our role there’s probably a greater exposure to potential close calls because we’re not just leading the field of cars, although there’s times where you let cars through, high speed cars going past you. But we can be deployed onto a live race track where there’s F1 cars around us, we’ve been asked a lot about ‘what skills sets do you need to do these roles? And driving the car fast is honestly probably the easiest part of the role, there’s a bunch of people in the world who can drive the car fast but it’s the situational awareness, having full 360 degree awareness of what’s going on around you. Formula 1 cars are absurdly fast on track, I’ve been on track with F1 cars at speed and you look in your mirror, nothing there, you look again and they’re right on you. You cannot believe how quick they are. 

Maylander: I realised it in Barcelona again. 

Josh: Still surprises you even after 25 years?
Maylander: Yeah.

Reindler: They’ve never been faster, right? 

Maylander: Not in corners. On the straights it doesn’t matter if you’re going down the straight, it’s the easy part. But around corners believe me…a road car goes up to 1.6, 1.7G maximum which is a lot for a road car, but F1 cars, the last two corners in Barcelona, they’re going with 5G+. You cannot believe it. It’s fantastic in a way, but you’re driving in front on the limit, and they’re driving in zig zags behind. 

Reindler: There’s several times where I’ve felt more exposed, the Miami sprint race on the Saturday, we were deployed, it was a late call to deploy us, Fernando had an accident down at Turn 14. I’ve gone out and I’ve got the two McLarens in front of me, I look in my rear view mirror and there’s Lewis behind me, I’m literally in the middle of the pack and you can’t believe how even behind the safety car, they’re weaving their tyres, braking and accelerating and I’m just trying to stay as far away as possible. But even once we get to the scene, how I position the car becomes important. We jump out of the car and I’m just trying to stay as far away as possible.

But even once we get to the scene, how I position the car becomes important, we jump out of the cars and there’s cars going past us. Australia last year when George ended up on his side on the second to last lap, I’m out of the car because George was quite shaken by that, and there’s cars going past me. Their slow speed is still 110, 120mph so the awareness that you need to have, you need to make quick decisions but you also can’t rush if that makes sense.

There’s this contradiction, you need to just have absolutely clarity in the moment. One wrong decision could be really disastrous for us. And you’re also protecting the team, the doctors in the car, I have two doctors, the FIA doctor, but we always have a local doctor as well, and they’re less experienced in that environment on track. It can be quite intense when you get to the scene of an incident. 

Chase Roberts asks: How do you prepare for each track?

Reindler: Right at the beginning of the weekend, we walk the track. There's a lot of preparation that goes into it. It doesn't matter if we've been at a circuit 500 times or the first time. We'll always walk the track as a team.

For me, I'm looking at the track from a performance perspective, but also how can I get to the medical centre as quickly as possible?. For Bernd, it's purely performance-based.

But also, you need to understand everything, all the moving parts in Formula 1, you need to know where the exit points are around the circuit, potential shortcuts.From there, typical communication checks around the circuit, we’ve got the main radio, the backup radio and the handheld. Slow lap in both cars, so I'll take both 707s and Bernd will take both Vantages and very casual pace just to every corner, we do a communication check on main radio, backup radio. Communication is absolutely critical for both of us for different reasons. 

There are procedural checks, we’ll do a simulated race start. Bernd will be on pole position. I'll be on P2. We’ll do an aborted start, quite often we do a red flag sequence just to check systems are working the way that they need. 

Lots of check-ups and then it's effectively a one-hour practice session for us to push the limits on the car, find out what the what the limit is on the Thursday and the track evolves a lot depending on if it's a street circuit or a permanent circuit, so just assessing the car making sure there's no you know complications or issues.

It's so seamless now, you go out there we push the cars, these four cars [and the Mercedes AMG quartet] are the eight hardest driven road cars in the world as far as I'm concerned, I don't think there's many road cars that are driven as hard as this, as frequently as this throughout the year.

Kenny Stoltz asks: How do you think you'd do if you were given an entry in the Porsche Supercup?

Note from Josh: We partly know the answer to that, as Maylander was a race winner in Porsche Supercup (and the DTM and various sportscar races and championships) during the late 1990s and early 2000s! It would be fascinating to see how he’d get on now. Personally I’d love to see both Maylander and Reindler race the Vantage at Le Mans! 

You’ll find the answer to more of your questions in my what we learned piece that you can read on the website here. But I hope you enjoyed this exclusive Q&A with Maylander and Reindler. I spent the morning with them learning more about the safety car, so if you have any further questions, pop them below and I’ll do my best to answer them.