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Formula 1 drivers have slammed the “unacceptable” situation of a recovery vehicle appearing on track during the safety car period before the Japanese Grand Prix was stopped.
Pierre Gasly passed the truck closely on track while he was recovering back to the pits after the red flag was shown, having had to make an early pitstop for repairs.
The AlphaTauri driver was enraged when he returned to the pitlane, but the FIA says the vehicle had been deployed appropriately and it will investigate Gasly for a potential breach of the regulations regarding speed after a red flag is shown.
Drivers were critical of the incident during the red flag stoppage, including Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz who crashed out in the “impossible” conditions on the opening lap.
“I think what people don’t understand is that even behind safety car, going 150km/h, we don’t see anything,” Sainz said.
“So even if there’s a crane on track, and we’re behind a safety car going 150km/h, one driver could do a small mistake, a stupid mistake, go a bit off-line, don’t remember a tractor is there and crash into a tractor, why even risk it?
“This is more our point.”
Suzuka was the scene of the accident eight years ago that led to the death of Jules Bianchi, who crashed into a recovery tractor attending to a previous incident.
Though the corner where Bianchi went off was under double waved yellows, the safety car was not called out until after his crash.
That accident has been widely referenced by those expressing fury at today’s incident, including Red Bull driver Sergio Perez.
How can we make it clear that we never want to see a crane on track?
We lost Jules because of that mistake.
What happened today is totally unacceptable!!!!!
I hope this is the last time ever I see a crane on track!
— Sergio Pérez (@SChecoPerez) October 9, 2022
The FIA appeared to suggest Gasly was driving too quickly during the red flag period, but Sainz was quick to stress that the recovery vehicle shouldn’t have been on track at that point regardless.
“As a driver, I think you don’t need to leave it to the driver, to the luck of the driver,” Sainz added.
“You’re going to red flag the race anyway. Why send the vehicle out? Wait a bit to bunch the field up, and go really slow.
“The driver is always going to go out and try to put a bit of temperature in to the extreme [wets], in case the race gets restarted. It’s a tricky one but why risk it?”
Sainz’s former McLaren team-mate Lando Norris also called the situation “unacceptable” in a tweet during the red flag period.
Wtf. How’s this happened!? We lost a life in this situation years ago. We risk our lives, especially in conditions like this. We wanna race. But this… Unacceptable.
— Lando Norris (@LandoNorris) October 9, 2022
His McLaren boss Andreas Seidl backed up his driver, saying that “absolutely must not happen” to SkySportsF1, a sentiment Red Bull team boss Christian Horner shared, calling it “totally unacceptable”.
“We lost Jules Bianchi here eight years ago,” Horner said.
“That should never ever happen. There needs to be a full investigation as to why there was a recovery vehicle on the circuit.
“Checo reported it to us. In those horrendous conditions, visibility is zero, it’s extremely dangerous.”
