Formula 1 safety car driver Bernd Maylander has admitted that he still feels nervous when he is leading the field, even after 500 races.
Having been in the position since 2000, Maylander has guided the pack through some of the more dramatic moments in the championship.
Yet, despite recently surpassing the milestone of 500 races, the German driver has revealed that having 20, and now 22, of the world’s fastest racing cars in his rear-view mirror remains intimidating.
Speaking on the F1 Beyond The Grid podcast, Maylander discussed the pressure of leading the grid.
“It still is,” he said when asked if it was intimidating. “I’m still impressed even now. Yeah, absolutely. Because it’s great, if I have to deploy, I always say the best races are without any deployment of a safety car because nothing happens, and hopefully we have a good race.
“Sometimes, if the safety car deploys, it helps the racing a little bit because we have new situations.
“We have a restart again, the race starts from a new thing. But if you have these F1 drivers behind you, you can feel the power, you can feel the spirit. Everyone is looking forward to the restart, where everything can happen, and that’s the fascination with the sport. And even I feel this in front.
Bernd Maylander, Safety Car Driver
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“If you ask me if I’m still nervous, yes, I’m nervous. Without this adrenaline, I think it would be boring, and I would not be a safety car driver anymore. But I need that.
“It’s like at the start, when I jump into the safety car 10 minutes before the start of the race, I check everything like I’m jumping in my race car. Radio check, and look at all the systems to see if they are all set up like I want to, and yes, ready to go.
“And then it’s the moment where you have to deploy, you have to catch the leader, you know the procedure. You have your co-driver next to you, so everything is in place and everything is ready to go, and that’s the spirit and the adrenaline, everything comes together.”
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