SUZUKA, Japan (AP) — An emotional Pierre Gasly said he feared for his life at the start of the Japanese Grand Prix when he narrowly avoided beating at the same circuit where compatriot Jules Bianchi was killed in a similar incident crashing into a crane.
The crane, or tractor as the drivers called it, was used on Sunday when the cars went off course early in the rain-soaked race. The recovery vehicle was at the Suzuka Circuit to collect Carlos Sainz Jr.’s car after Sainz went off the course in wet conditions.
Despite other drivers passing the crane at slow speed, Gasly had started the race from pit lane and was rushing to catch up with the field in poor visibility when he ran into the safety crew. He sped past the crane and safety worker standing on the track.
The FIA penalized Gasly after the race for not slowing down in red flag conditions, but the Frenchman was furious.
“What’s that tractor on the track?” Gasly yelled into his crew radio. “I missed it. This is unacceptable. Remember what happened. Can’t believe this! We never want to see a crane on the line again.”
Bianchi lost control of his car in wet conditions on the same track in 2014 and collided with a recovery vehicle. He remained in a coma for nine months with a head injury before dying at the age of 25. Bianchi’s death was the first by a track incident in Formula 1 since Ayrton Senna’s fatal accident in 1994.
“We’ve already lost Jules. We’ve all lost a great guy, a great driver, for reasons we know well. Eight years ago, on the same track, under the same conditions, with a crane,” Gasly complained after the race. “As? How can we see a crane on a racetrack today, not just in the gravel, while still on the track? I do not understand that.
“Of course I got scared. Of course if I had lost the car in a similar way Carlos would have lost it the previous lap…I would have died, simple as that.”
The F1 executive penalizes Gasly with a 20-second time penalty and two penalty points, but the FIA said it will also investigate the circumstances that led to the crane being on track.
“It’s disrespectful to Jules, disrespectful to his family. We’re all risking our lives out there. We’re doing the best job in the world, but what we’re asking is to at least protect ourselves, it’s dangerous enough as it is,” Gasly raged to tractors on the track. I’m just very thankful to be here and tonight I’m going to call my family and all my loved ones and the result is what it is.
“I walked two meters past that crane and if I had been two meters to the left I would have been dead.”
Bianchi’s father Phillippe wrote on Instagram during the race that there was “no respect for the driver’s life, no respect for Jules’ memory”.
Anger was shared in the F1 paddock.
“This is the lowest point we’ve seen in the sport in years,” said driver Sergio Perez. “What happened today makes me so angry. I just hope we never see that situation again in sport. We saw what happened to our friend Jules here a few years ago and I don’t give a damn what the cause of it was. It should never happen again, in any category.”
Red Bull boss Christian Horner called for a full investigation “why a recovery vehicle was on the route. Checo reported it to us and of course in these horrible conditions when visibility is zero it’s extremely dangerous.
“I still don’t know why we continue to risk having a tractor on the track in these conditions because it’s worthless anyway,” added Horner. “They’re going to red flag it anyway, so why risk it?”
McLaren driver Lando Norris wrote on Twitter: “How did this happen!? We lost a life in this situation years ago. We risk our lives, especially in such conditions. We want to race. But this… unacceptable.”
Gasly was named to succeed Fernado Alonso next year at Alpine on Saturday, in a weekend that should have been a celebration for the 26-year-old. Instead, the entire race was choppy from start to finish, as Max Verstappen was unaware that he had won his second consecutive world title until well after his victory in the shortened race.
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