Overview
- Mercedes told media that it uses race-specific radio codes to alert drivers to possible Safety Car or Virtual Safety Car (VSC) windows and that those codes are changed each weekend.
- During the Spanish Grand Prix Mercedes race engineer Peter Bonnington told Kimi Antonelli to lift in the yellow-flag zone and to expect a VSC, which helped Antonelli delay throttle and reach the pits as the VSC was deployed.
- Team preparation — including having two sets of tyres ready and double-stacking pit crews for Antonelli and George Russell — let Mercedes complete the stop inside a very narrow window of roughly 15 seconds from the VSC call.
- Mercedes insists the coded message did not cause race control to deploy the VSC and says the call simply kept the team ready to act, while rivals and pundits say the timing changed the race outcome and want rule discussion.
- Any rule change would need review by the FIA Sporting Advisory Committee and the F1 Commission and could include measures such as a minimum neutralisation lap, so no immediate regulatory change has been made.