I do think Suzuka needs to be taken off the calendar for next year to give them time to sort these tractors out that keep finding themselves on the circuit or at circuits edge. It’s totally unacceptable and the circuit management clearly haven’t learned any lessons. We don’t see this at any other circuit
So having worked with race control in a few series, I have to correct a few things here. (Sorry, I'm not being a dick, but there's a LOT of misconceptions and misinformation being posted on Twitter, which has made is hard for fans to see what actually happened - I'm not aiming this at you, so I apologise if it seems I am! Also, I used to do emergency response - so procedures in these situations are kinda my thing).
Firstly Suzuka management having nothing do with recovery vehicle deployment. This is controlled by the Race Director - which today was Eduardo Fraitis, who has successfully run the Le Mans and WEC race controls for decades now. He was parachuted in after last years mess with Michael Masi. Eduardo deployed the safety vehicle.
Secondly, we see vehicles on the circuit every week at every circuit. Look back at Monza and recovery of Danniel Riccardos car. That went completely fine under safety car conditions. In fact, how would you possibly recover a car if you can't do it under safety car? You'd need to red flag every every time a car went off. You can't do that.
So what was the difference between Suzuka and Monza? And why was today more dangerous? The answer was Gasly broke the rules. To work out why this was a problem we need to look at the order of events.
1 - The crash happens. Sainz goes off, debris comes on track, Gasly collects the advertising board and damages the front wing.
2 - Safety car is deployed before the end of the lap. The circuit is now neutralised and cars have to slow.
3 - The recovery vehicle is sent onto the track with the marshals
4 - Gasly pits to repair the damage. As this is a nose replacement, it's a long stop
5 - The field bunches behind the safety car and slows
6 - Gasly exits the pits, but has a large gap to the field
7 - The field slows and passes the accident zone - the zone is covered by double waved yellow flags and the field is informed to stay to the right hand side of the track by the race director
8 - As Gasly is approaching the accident zone, the red flag flies - the light box he is passing goes red, and the red light appears on his dashboard
9 - Gasly, at racing speed, passes the accident zone whilst trying to catch field, and is surprised by the recovery vehicle.
So the first problem is Gasly has pitted, which has left him behind the pack. This isn't a major issue, but he has to close the gap. The second issue is that Gasly doesn't appear to have been informed of by his team of the race directors instructions to stay to the right hand side of the track due to the vehicle being on the track. The fourth problem is that Gasly has forgotten about the accident zone - which is remarkable, because he was involved in it. The fifth problem is that Gasly ignored the double waved yellow flag entering the zone - double waved yellow flags mean slow down and be prepared to stop. Gasly did not slow down. And the sixth and final problem is Gasly did not see or react to the red flag until he was well beyond the accident zone.
Whilst it does appear at a glance to be the race director who made a mistake, they didn't. They did the same thing as every race and mobilised recovery as soon as the field was neutralised. The problem is Gasly ignored the track status. He was doing 250kmh (155 mph) through the accident zone, without lifting for a yellow. That, is absolutely unacceptable, and why Gasly has been given a 20 second penalty.
There is also a few people asking how/what do other series do to cope with this - the answer is the exact same as F1 did today. The difference is how these series police the drivers. WEC, Creventic and NLS have had VSC for years before F1, and even include slow zones where cars are required to slow between marshal posts. If a driver violates a yellow flag in the way Gasly did today they are often disqualified, and in more extreme cases, have their racing license removed and are forced to reapply for it (see: NLS, N24).
Race control did nothing wrong. Gasly was at fault for not obeying the yellow and red flag status.
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