Car
Four things you might not know about F1's safety car
by Josh Suttill
6min read
The Aston Martin Vantage Formula 1 safety car has become a crucial part of race weekends, requiring both driver and machine to be honed.
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However, despite it leading countless races, the hard work that goes into ensuring safety car procedures run smoothly is often overlooked.
Raceteq headed down to British Grand Prix venue Silverstone to get behind the wheel of both the Aston Martin Vantage F1 safety car and the Aston Martin DBX707 medical car and learn more about the work of safety car driver Bernd Maylander and medical car driver Karl Reindler.
Here are some things you might not know about two crucial F1 vehicles and their drivers.
Raceteq writer Josh Suttill with Formula 1 safety car driver Bernd Maylander (L) and medical car driver Karl Reindler (R)
It’s not just any supercar
The Aston Martin Vantage is already an impressive roadcar, but it received a number of upgrades before serving as one of F1’s two safety cars.
It has updated geometry for the race track, underfloor aero as well as bespoke light bar, rear wing and front splitter to increase its downforce level.
It’s fitted with tyres from F1 supplier Pirelli and has enhanced brake ducts and reinforced suspension.
There’s an exhaust muffler delete fitted to remove heat from underneath the boot floor, as well as a differential cooler for when the car is running in extreme temperatures.
All of those modifications allow the safety car, powered by a hand-built 4.0 twin-turbo V8 engine, to reach 60 miles per hour from standstill in just 3.4 seconds and a top speed of 195 mph.
They're all fitted with additional screens and a rear-view camera from the FIA, as well as a bespoke central console switch pack that links up to the race control systems.
It's this central console switch panel where the drivers turn the roof lights on and off and communicate with race control.
Safety car drivers practise just like F1 drivers
The safety and medical car teams prepare for weekends in a similar manner to F1 teams.
On Thursday, they’ll walk the track, looking for any changes versus the previous years and the condition of the kerbs and tarmac.
They’ll then conduct a series of low and high-speed track tests, ensuring that all of the communication equipment works.
“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,” Reindler says to Raceteq.
“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 with everything, all the moving parts in Formula 1, you need to know where the exit points are around the circuit, potential shortcuts.
An interior view of the Aston Martin Vantage safety car showing the screens, digital cameras, and controls available to team members
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“From there, typical communication checks around the circuit, we’ve got the main radio, the backup radio and the handheld [radio].
“Slow lap in both cars - so I'll take both [Aston Martin DBX] 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 that systems are working the way that they need to.
“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 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.”
The Mercedes-AMG GT safety car leading the field at the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix
There’s a team behind the safety car
The safety and medical cars are part of what’s effectively a racing team on a grand prix weekend with a team of engineers who will look after the cars throughout the weekend.
"There are three guys with us, it's an incredible team, it feels like a real race team for us. It reminds me of when I was competing in motorsport," says Reindler, who competed in the likes of Australian and British Formula 3, Supercars and A1GP across 2000s and 2010s.
"They look after you, they always want feedback, they've always got your back. We put so much trust in them."
There aren’t as many set-up options as F1 cars, but the teams still adjust the tyre pressures of the safety and medical cars through the weekend based on the evolving demands of the changing track conditions.
The safety car is driven at the limit every race weekend
They’ll also test alongside the trackside marshals and medical staff. The medical car needs to be on standby for every F1 session and all of the support races, so emergency procedures are routinely tested.
This is especially important because each race weekend will have different marshals, and different trackside and medical personnel.
"It's very important that everything works in the perfect way, even if something goes wrong in the morning [tests], we still have the next morning to teach them again," Maylander explains.
"We try to take everything to 100%; 99% is not enough.”
The Aston Martin Vantage safety car leading the field at the 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
Driving fast is the easiest part
In the words of Reindler, “driving fast is probably the easiest part of the role”, given the importance of multi-tasking and clear communication from the cockpit.
"There are 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 - that's important,” Reindler says.
Nobody knows that better than Maylander, who made his first appearance behind the wheel of the F1 safety car back in 2000, and has missed only a handful of races since.
"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 [about] our job and wait for the calls," Maylander adds.
It can’t be underestimated what they - and the reliable and mighty fast Aston Martin Vantage safety car and DBX707 medical cars - contribute to the smooth running of a race weekend.
