The Japanese Grand Prix ended in a joyous celebration as Max Verstappen won his second world championship. However, a dark cloud loomed over the paddock, particularly for Pierre Gasly, who feared for his life at the beginning of Sunday’s race.
A chaotic opening lap unfolded as rain created hectic conditions with very low visibility for the 20 cars zipping around Suzuka Circuit. Carlos Sainz aquaplaned into a barrier, two other cars spun at different points of the track but recovered and a piece of the advertising board ended up on the front nose of Gasly’s car. The Frenchman pitted as the pack of cars filed behind the safety car, and he tried to rejoin the pack but says he was slower than the delta lap time.
However, less than a second after the red flag was shown, Gasly narrowly missed a recovery vehicle on the track, sparking memories of the rain-soaked 2014 Japanese Grand Prix.
Eight years ago, Jules Bianchi collided with a crane trying to recover another vehicle. Months later, he died from his head injuries, and the accident launched major safety changes within the series.
“We lost Jules eight years ago in similar conditions with a crane on track in the gravel. I don’t understand how eight years later in similar conditions we can still see a crane, not even on the gravel but on the racing line,” Gasly said to Autosport. “It is just not respectful towards Jules, towards his family, towards his loved ones and all of us. It was a dramatic incident, and I think on that day we learned we don’t want to see any tractors in this kind of conditions.
“If I would have lost the car in a similar way as Carlos lost it on the lap before … I was doing 200 kph, but it is not the matter, even 100 kph. If I would have lost it and hit a 12-tonne crane, I would’ve been dead right now.
“I am just extremely grateful that I am still standing and I am still going to be able to call my family tonight and still going to be able to call my loved ones and nothing happened.
“But really for the sake of us drivers, I hope that this can be the last time that we see a crane and take such an unnecessary risk for all of us race drivers.”
Several F1 bosses and drivers criticized the situation. 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.”
Sergio Perez called it “the lowest point we’ve seen in the sport in years” in an interview with Sky Sports F1, while Sebastian Vettel added in his own interview, “Today, we were just lucky.”
Gasly was summoned by the stewards for speeding under red flag conditions, but the reasoning was for “Car 10 reached speeds of up to 250 kph when completing the lap under the red flag after passing the scene of the incident.” Ultimately, he was dealt a drive-through penalty that added 20 seconds to his race time and two penalty points.
The stewards noted they took into account the shock of seeing the truck on the track.
“I came past two metres on the right, two metres away from passing away today, which I don’t think is acceptable as a race driver,” Gasly said.
The FIA later said there would be a “thorough review” of what occurred. “While it is normal practice to recover cars under SC and Red Flag conditions, due to the particular circumstances and also taking into account feedback from of a number of drivers, the FIA has launched a thorough review of the events involving the deployment of recovery vehicles during the Japanese Grand Prix.
“This is part of the common practice of debrief and analysis of all race incidents to ensure continual improvements of processes and procedures.”
More Formula One:
