After drivers reacted angrily to the use of a crane at the Japanese Grand Prix, Formula One’s governing body will conduct a thorough review of its protocols for employing rescue vehicles on the track.
Pierre Gasly, the driver of the AlphaTauri, stated that he would have been killed had he collided with the crane while doing 200 kilometers per hour.
The race, won by Max Verstappen of Red Bull, who also won his second F1 world championship in Suzuka, was conducted in torrential rain with very poor visibility and grip.
Similar conditions existed to those in 2014 when Jules Bianchi collided with a crane that was attempting to remove a stalled vehicle and incurred fatal injuries.
The remainder of the field, except Gasly, was behind the safety car on the second lap when the crane was used, which is permitted by FIA regulations, but this was widely viewed as unacceptable.
Carlos Sainz of Ferrari, whose crash prompted the recovery, criticized the decision to send the crane at all. “We are moving at 150 km/h behind the safety car, but we cannot see anything,” he stated. “The race is over if a driver experiences minor aquaplaning or strays from the racing line and collides with a tractor. Why put a tractor on the track? They would have raised the red flag anyway.”
Moments after the grid had passed the incident and as Gasly reached the crane, the race was red-flagged.
Alex Wurz, the chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers Association, condemned the incident vehemently. “I believe we should debate a tractor on track… We can keep it brief: this must NOT occur, gentlemen,” he tweeted.
In response to the considerable criticism, the FIA announced it will review its procedures.
“While it is standard practice to recover cars under the safety car and red flag conditions, the FIA has launched a thorough review of the events involving the deployment of recovery vehicles at the Japanese Grand Prix due to the unique circumstances and in light of feedback from several drivers,” read a statement.
This is part of the standard practice of debriefing and analyzing all race-related occurrences to ensure continuous process and procedure improvements.
The deployment of rescue vehicles is determined solely by race control, which is directed by the race director. The FIA has yet to establish why the crane was placed onto the track in such hazardous conditions, while vehicles were still behind the safety car and Gasly was circulating away from the pack and at speed after pitting after the first lap.
The investigation must determine if race control authorized the use of the crane or whether trackside marshals acted on their initiative. The outrage of drivers signals that the practice will very probably be modified, regardless of the outcome.
There are also suggestions to change the wording of the rules, which generated great misunderstanding after the race regarding whether or not Verstappen had earned enough points to win his second consecutive championship.
The mistake stems from last year’s Belgian Grand Prix, which ended in farce when a race was proclaimed and points were given after only three circuits behind the safety car.
This resulted in a rule modification requiring a minimum of two completed laps and a sliding scale of points based on how much of the race distance had been completed.
Teams assumed this would be the case in Japan, where only 28 laps – little over half the distance – were completed, meaning Verstappen would have been awarded only three-quarters of a point and not enough to win the championship.
However, the exact text of the regulations stipulates that full points are granted provided the race is completed, regardless of the number of laps run, and as Sunday’s race ran to the checkered flag following its original interruption, the sliding scale did not apply.
Based on this interpretation of the language, full points would be granted even if only two racing laps were completed before the flag.
Christian Horner, the team principal for Verstappen, was one of the numerous managers who criticized the regulation for not performing as planned. “I believe it is a mistake that the regulations have not been cleaned up after the problems at Spa last year,” Horner stated. We were under the notion that full points would not be awarded until 75% of the race had been finished, so we anticipated falling one point short.
Andreas Seidl, the team principal at McLaren, was also adamant that the rules must be modified to correctly apply the sliding scale of points.
“How the points were given was not what we had in mind,” stated Seidl. “This was never the objective of the FIA or the team. It appears that we all missed this loophole, hence we are all liable for it. It implies that we must work together to accomplish a better job next time.”
