Chilling situation at the start of the Japanese GP. Pierre Gasly encountered an oncoming truck while driving on the track, first under safety car conditions and then under red flag. The Frenchman was lagging behind because he had changed tires and was several seconds behind the peloton. He reached high speeds, according to records, and will be investigated for it. But at the same time a very worrying event occurred: at the height where Carlos Sainz had had an accident (past the hairpin, second sector), the Alpha Tauri saw the recovery vehicle in front of the track, without having been warned about it. . A very dangerous event that has cost lives in Formula 1’s past: Jules Bianchi’s traffic accident at Suzuka 2014 originated in similar circumstances.
The first communication from the FIA in this regard suggests that Gasly was riding “at high speed” to catch up with the group and that “as conditions deteriorated, the red flag had gone out before car ’10’ had passed the location of the incident”. It is not explained why there was a tractor on the tarmac before all the cars had passed, or why the driver had not been warned or signaled accordingly. In fact, visibility was low due to the rain. In Monza, a few weeks ago, something similar happened with a recovery vehicle in the Ricciardo breakdown, but the good weather in Italy served as a mitigating factor. What happened in Japan exceeds any limit of acceptable danger.
The Frenchman was the driver who was closest to the vehicle, but the entire group passed to his right a few moments before when the red flag had not even been decreed. It can be seen in the cameras ‘on board’ and in the comments of several pilots on the radio. With the race stopped, some like Lando Norris took the opportunity to tweet: “How could this happen. We lost a life in these circumstances a few years ago. We risk our lives, especially in conditions like these. We want to race, but this is… unacceptable.” Also the father of Jules Bianchi, on Instagram: “No respect for the lives of the pilots, no respect for the memory of Jules. Incredible”.
A more than complicated situation on which the FIA race direction will have to give explanations. In Japan, the owner is the German Wittich.
