The other Aston Martin F1 cars | PH Review
The F1 Safety and Medical cars aren’t normally stars of the show – time for their 15 minutes of fame
Even if you’re an F1 fan, I bet you don’t think much about the F1 safety car, do you? That’s understandable – it’s hardly the star of the show. It pops out from time to time – usually after someone’s biffed their bespoke, multi-million-pound racing car in spectacular fashion – and trundles around like a wounded gazelle, being toyed with by a chasing pack of salivating lions. If you pay it any attention, you’ll know that sometimes it’s a Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series while, at others, it’s an Aston Martin Vantage. But did you watch the 2021 Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix? Or the more recent 2025 Spanish GP? If you did, then you’ll know that the under-the-radar F1 safety car can very much turn an F1 race on its head. So much so, we thought we’d have a look at the safety car, in Vantage form, and, for good measure, throw in the DBX medical car as well. I was keen to learn what upgrades they make to these cars so they can perform on track, but also chat to the drivers to understand how they go about their business.
For those that don’t know, relatively speaking, the F1 safety car hasn’t been around that long. The first time one appeared at an F1 race was the 1973 Canadian GP. That honour went to a yellow Porsche 914, but it was a bit-part player thereafter rather than a permanent fixture. It was introduced full-time as a must-have for the 1993 season, but the car itself still chopped and changed. And the FIA deployed some pretty ropey hardware over the next few seasons, including a Fiat Tempra, Opel Vectra, and Honda Prelude – hardly the stuff of dreams you’d expect to see leading a field of the world’s best cars driven by the world’s best drivers. There were some fancier models, like a Porsche 911 GT2 and Lamborghini Diablo, but it wasn’t until 1996, and the arrival of the Mercedes-AMG, that one manufacturer finally took responsibility for providing the cars and some model consistency. And that was how it stayed until 2021, when Aston Martin got in on the act and shared the responsibility 50:50.
The first Mercedes was a C36 AMG driven by Oliver Gavin. And Gavin stuck around for a few more years before his racing took him to America, so the FIA appointed Bernd Mayländer in 1999. I asked Bernd how he ended up with the job of official safety car driver. “In 1999 I was racing in the Porsche Supercup, part of the European Formula 1 season [as one of the support race series], and it was a really good year for me. Then I get a phone call, and it was Charlie Whiting [then F1 Race Director], who I’d never spoken to before, and he asked me to come to his office. I thought something was wrong with my car, but he said he was looking for a new safety car driver.”
“Why you, Bernd?” I asked him. Well, he said, “I’d driven for Mercedes in DTM and the FIA GT championship…,” and Norbert Haug, Mercedes’ former motorsports boss, “…told Charlie, Bernd knows the brand, he knows the rules, he knows when to be quiet, and he’s not crazy.” In other words, Bernd won’t say anything stupid and won’t crash, so that was that. I asked him what’s the biggest difference between when he started and now. “The first race was in a sporty, big coupé from AMG [a CL]. Very comfortable with a full leather seat and a hand radio connected by speakers. Now we have GPS mapping [showing where all the cars are on track], we can see the G-force on a driver after an accident, paddleshifting, traction control, much more power, and we are not normally on the track anymore for more than 10 to 15 laps before a red flag. In the old times, I remember 2007 in Fuji we were leading for 30 laps; Canada in 2011 34 laps.”
Bernd’s safety car is effectively a road car with good ground clearance, while the F1 cars have very little ground clearance, so are much more prone to aquaplaning. They also have no wipers, of course, and the combination of downforce and big, uncovered wheels means they throw spray high into the air, so visibility is a massive issue. On those days when it’s wet, and Bernd’s leading the field round, can he tell when a track’s safe for F1 cars? “I think so,” he says. “I am quite good at that because it’s an experience thing. Even if you talk to the drivers, they give you a lot of information; if we stop a race with a red flag, I am immediately going to the drivers and asking about the aquaplaning just to understand it a bit more. And if you ask the car behind me how was the visibility, he might say it was okay, but go to the tenth driver and he might say I couldn’t see anything. So I give my information, but the decision [on when to race] is always taken by race control.”
Does Bernd get nervous? “Yes,” he said, “even now I still get nervous on the grid.” That’s understandable, with the eyes of the world on him. And what was his most challenging race so far? Without a moment’s hesitation, he said, “Montreal 2011, because it was a big challenge to do the right things.” And favourite race? “Event-wise, it would be Silverstone together with Austin, but my favourite track is Suzuka.” From his first F1 race in 2000 until today, Bernd’s missed just a few races – Monaco and Canada in 2001, because he broke his heel, and the US race in 2002, because he had a wedding he couldn’t miss. That’s proper commitment, considering these days there are 24 races in a grindingly long season. New Zealander, Karl Reindler, who drives the DBX medical car, says he doesn’t know how Bernd does it – Karl shares his job 50:50 over the season with Portuguese driver Bruno Correia.
