Formula 1 drivers praised the FIA for improving its communication about recovery vehicles appearing on-track in response to their complaints following the Japanese Grand Prix.
During the rain-hit race at Suzuka, a recovery crane was sent out on track under Safety Car to retrieve the car of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jnr under Safety Car after he aquaplaned off.
The worsening rainfall and decreasing visibility resulted in the race being red flagged. Many drivers were furious to encounter the crane on track without prior warning, with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly driving by the incident at just under 200km/h.
Gasly, who was penalised with a 20-second time penalty for speeding under red flag conditions, later voiced his fury that the crane on track had posed a serious safety risk. The FIA launched an investigation into the events around incident, reporting “procedural issues” with how the crane had been deployed and recommending a series of measures to improve safety, including race control issuing a warning on the official race control message system which teams must relay to drivers.
Two weeks later at the United States Grand Prix, the warning was issued for the first time when Valtteri Bottas spun out into the gravel trap at the penultimate corner. A crane was deployed to remove the Alfa Romeo and race control issued the message ‘recovery vehicle on track at turn 19’, which teams relayed to drivers over team radio.
Gasly later said he felt the situation was managed “in a lot better way” at the Circuit of the Americas compared to Suzuka.
“It is a sort of message which I would have liked to have in Suzuka because it would have changed completely my approach going in this area of the track,” Gasly explained.
He called for the FIA “to find even more ways to make it even safer”, but was pleased with the speed of the implementation of the new approach.
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“At the end of the day even if there is 0.0001% chance something bad happens… That’s the reason we put the halo – same thing. If it reduces 1% or even less than that, why would you not do it?”
“I think it’s at least a step forward,” said McLaren’s Lando Norris, who was warned about the crane over the radio by race engineer Will Joseph. “We try to make it clear there’s still a big difference between when it’s bone dry and perfect sunny conditions.
“Common sense is just needed for when it’s obvious – it’s dry. There’s…
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