Pierre Gasly was furious with the FIA after narrowly avoiding a collision with a recovery vehicle on the race track at the start of a wet Japanese Grand Prix.
The incident brought back memories of the 2014 race at the same circuit, when Jules Bianchi suffered a serious brain injury in a collision with a recovery vehicle in the wet.
Bianchi died the following year from the injuries he sustained.
On this occasion, with visibility severely limited in the rain Gasly passed to the right of the crane, which had been deployed to recover the car of Carlos Sainz, who had spun out of the race on lap one.
Over the radio, Gasly then said: “God, what the… what the… what is this tractor? What is this tractor on track?
“This is unacceptable! What has happened? Cannot believe this.”
After getting out of his car during the red flag stoppage, Gasly was caught on camera telling AlphaTauri management: “I was going flat out! I could have f—— killed myself”.
Other cars were following behind the Safety Car when the crane was deployed, but Gasly had pitted after lap one following a separate incident.
The AlphaTauri driver was trying to catch up with the pack when he came past the vehicle.
A light panel at the side of the track appeared to start flashing red — to indicate that the race was being suspended — just before Gasly passed it and before he came across the recovery vehicle.
In response to the Gasly incident, the FIA said the red flag had already been issued when the vehicle went on track.
“In relation to the recovery of the incident on Lap 3, the safety car had been deployed and the race neutralised. Car 10, which had collected damage and pitted behind the Safety Car, was then driving at high speed to catch up to the field.
“As conditions were deteriorating, the Red Flag was shown before Car 10 passed the location of the incident where it had been damaged the previous lap.”
Gasly has been summoned to see the stewards for driving too fast under red flag conditions.
Gasly wasn’t the only driver surprised to see the vehicle on track.
McLaren driver Lando Norris tweeted: “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.”
Red Bull driver Sergio Perez tweeted: “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!
Red Bull boss Christian Horner said: “It is totally unacceptable. We lost Jules Bianchi here and that should never ever happen so there needs to be a full investigation why there was because it obviously shouldn’t have been.
“I think we got lucky. It’s unimaginable when you see something like that. Thankfully all the drivers are in one piece.”
After passing the crane, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel said over radio: “Next time, they should inform us if there’s a fricking tractor on the road.
“I know we’re under Safety Car, but in turn 12, there’s this…”
Williams driver Alex Albon later told Sky Sports that Vettel had raised the issue of recovery vehicles on track during Friday’s driver meeting with the FIA race director.
Alexander Wurz, director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, tweeted: “I think we need to discuss a tractor on track. We can keep it short: this must not happen guys.”
Source: www.espn.com