The FIA will investigate the circumstances of the accident at the start of the race. Pierre Gasly walked quickly around the crane.
It is not a theory or an exaggeration. Eight years ago there was a tragic accident in Formula 1. Jules Bianchi flew off the track and crashed into the crane that was removing Adrian Sutil’s car. A few months later, Bianchi died as a result of the accident.
Shortly after the start of the race, Pierre Gasly drove at relatively high speed around the crane that was removing Carlos Sainz’s car. The Frenchman was very angry and the other riders reacted the same way. But what happened and whose fault is it?
The FIA will investigate the situation. “Due to the special circumstances and also taking into account the feedback from a number of drivers, the FIA has initiated an in-depth analysis of the events surrounding the deployment of recovery vehicles during the Japanese Grand Prix,” said the FIA. “It is part of the normal practice of debriefing and analyzing all race incidents to ensure continuous improvement of processes and procedures.”
There are a number of questions to which we unfortunately do not yet know the answer. We can only rely on what is known now. What happened?
After starting from the pits, Gasly picked up an advertising sign that entered the track during Sainz’s accident. For this he had to go to the pits, where they removed the sign, put on the tires and sent back to the track. At that moment, of course, the safety car phase had already been announced.
When Gasly was still in the pits, the stewards were already on track. Moments later, a crane arrived on the platform. We do not know if the marshals and the crane took to the track as indicated by the race direction or if it was their initiative. One of the commissioners visibly makes a gesture, probably to the crane operator. However, no one can enter or enter the track without the permission of the race direction, so we assume that this was the case.
The FIA defends that it is normal practice for the crane to come out while the safety car is on the track and that is fine. This is certainly true. It is probably not possible to raise the red flag every time you need to remove the car with the help of a crane.
The problem is that conditions in Suzuka were not normal. It was raining and the drivers were on track after the start with the tires for transition conditions.
In the case of a safety car, the term that the race is neutralized is often used. This is a precise and concise term: the race is stopped, no overtaking is allowed and the drivers must follow the safety car after they have gathered.
The problem is that the FIA and Gasly have not followed the “neutralization” process. The crane was only supposed to go to the tracks after the entire field was assembled. In this case, the safety car monitors the speed and the situation on the track: it can drive more slowly to the crash site, if there is a problem on the starting straight, it can drive through the pit lane with the drivers, etc.
The race was only partially neutralized, as there was a gap of around 40 seconds between the last driver of the “train” (Čou) and Gasly after exiting the pits.
Race management may have forgotten about Gasly or thought he had resigned. The mechanics worked on his car for nearly 19 seconds.
If Gasly hadn’t been in the pits, it probably would have been okay to deploy the crane. All the other drivers were behind the scene of the accident and the passage through the scene of the accident could be controlled by the safety car. Of course, it could still be dangerous – we also remember the accidents behind the safety car.
Gasly was angry
“We lost Jules eight years ago in similar conditions with a crane on a gravel track,” Gasly told Motorsport.com.
“I don’t understand how eight years later you can see a crane in similar condition, not even on gravel, but on a runway. It is disrespectful to Jules, his family, his loved ones and all of us. It was a dramatic accident and I think we realized that day that we didn’t want to see any tractors in those conditions. “
“If I had lost control of the car in the same way that Carlos did a lap earlier … I was going at 200 km / h but it doesn’t matter, even if it was 100 km / h, if I had lost control of the car. car and hit a 12-ton crane, now I’d be dead. ‘
Unfortunately, even Gasly’s head is butter. The safety car went out at the start of the race, so in the event of a restart there would be no waiting for the safety car to make the driver go back one lap. The restart could therefore take place earlier, but certainly not immediately. However, Gasly was in a hurry to reach the starting field. After leaving the pits, he lost about 40 seconds against the train. At the scene of the accident, it was already six seconds less.
At the same time, Gasly knew Sainz had crashed at that point – the sign he had picked up came from an accident.
Apparently the crane wasn’t waiting, but it had to deal with the fact that there might be sheriffs or some other problem. After all, Sainz was running across the track after getting out of the car, which isn’t quite correct. So he should have slowed down at that point.
Moments later the red flag flutters and Gasly received a post-race penalty for speeding under the red flag.
