The Japanese F1 Grand Prix in which Max Verstappen became world champion for the second time and that was marked by incessant rain and the incident of gasly with the assistance crane that was found on the track, it continues to generate statements. Now it’s been Lando Norris, tenth, and first of the McLaren at the finish line, who has given his point of view on the conditions that were experienced in Suzuka.
The Briton, like other drivers, points more to poor visibility than to the rain itself as the cause of the prolonged red flag that shortened the race. And in his opinion, the race direction was right to stop the test: “The biggest problem is not that the track is too wet, but that it is very difficult to see anything. You have to look at both things separately.” Furthermore, he adds, shooting in free practice, as happened on Friday, is not the same as in a race with all the cars on the track: “How many vehicles are on the track also influences. In practice, conditions like last Sunday would have been perfectly fine and I would drive too. But when you’re tenth in a Grand Prix and you can’t see anything, that’s different. The risk we take in such conditions is insane.”
And to exemplify his idea, he focuses on the accident of Carlos Sainz, which caused the red flag and the exit to the track of the tractor that had to remove the injured Ferrari: “You can’t see five or ten meters, even if the car in front of you has a big taillight. You also can’t tell when a car stops in front of you. I did not see Sainz’s accident. If he had turned one meter more to the left, he would have hit him hard”, he points out to also put into context the situation that Gasly experienced when he found the crane in the middle of the line.
There were already many voices in the paddock who pointed out at the beginning of the season that running in water with the cars of the new regulations was going to be excessively complicated, due to the amount of water they raise: “We have to do something to make these cars produce less spray. This is the only way we can continue driving in unfavorable conditions. And I would love to, because I love the challenges of a wet track. In lower categories I ran in worse conditions, but the curtain of water raised by the F1 cars is too violent”, concludes the McLaren driver.
