“This mistake has a zero tolerance”- Sebastian Vettel has pointed F1’s negligence over showing green flags despite the presence of a crane on track.
Sebastian Vettel has assertively spoken against F1’s negligence over showing green flags to the drivers despite Nicholas Latifi’s crashed car with the crane yet to pass the barricades.
“I think we are all humans, and mistakes happen,” said Vettel as the director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association. “But this mistake has a zero tolerance.
“I think we’re all well aware and I’m very confident that it will not happen in the future again. But we will for sure talk about this and disclose the reasons why.”
“We have all been a bit shocked”- Charles Leclerc
For a moment, the sight of crane within the vicinity of the track recalled the tragic memories of Jules Bianchi’s crash in Suzuki 2014, when the Marussia driver veered off course in the rain and collided with a mobile crane that was removing another car.
And Charles Leclerc showing his concerns echoed the views of his teammate Vettel. “For the crane, obviously, I think we have all been a bit shocked to see that,” he said. “And we’ll probably speak together at the next briefing to avoid these types of situations.
“There is no need to say what happened in the past with these sorts of situations. So yeah, I think it shouldn’t happen, and we need to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”
Resumed the race with information available
On the other hand, FIA race director Michael Masi claims that he is fully comfortable with the decision to resume the race, as it was the only available information to the team.
“It was quite close to the barrier opening, and the crane was on its way,” said Masi. “We were given assurances that it would be well and truly clear. And looking at everything, I was more than comfortable with the local assurances on that basis.
“With the benefit of hindsight, you would do something different. But based on it all, and the available information at the time, that was the call that we made.”
However, Masi has also claimed that this instance has to be reviewed to prevent a repeat of it in the future, and give a safe space to the drivers to compete.
“From an FIA perspective, we review every incident that takes place,” said the Australian. “Be it minor, major, in between or otherwise, at any point in time during a session, outside of a session, and continually learn from everything that takes place.
“So from that handbook, we will continue to learn. It’s no different to a team learning about different elements over a weekend and in between.
“We are absolutely no different. And from our end, as I’ve said many times, safety is our number one priority and you learn from everything, every time a car rolls out of pit lane, every time you look at something different.”
