Pierre Gasly is to be investigated by the Suzuka stewards following his outburst after a recovery vehicle was sent out on to the track while cars were still circulating.

As the race got underway in atrocious conditions, Carlos Sainz spun off into an advertising hoarding on the opening lap, the Spaniard's Ferrari left half on the grass kerb and half on the track. Moments later, Alex Albon ground to a halt with a technical issue.

Having started 17th, Gasly was seeking to make up ground when he came across the scene of Sainz' off and collected a piece of the advertising hording that had become dislodged and almost hit Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes.

The errant hording having damaged the nose of his car, as the race continued, Gasly headed back to the pits for a new nose whilst taking the opportunity to switch to Inters.

As he sought to catch up to the tail end of the field the Frenchman encountered a recovery vehicle that had been deployed to remove Sainz' Ferrari, and recalling the (similar) circumstances in 2014 which led to the death of his close friend Jules Bianchi, the Frenchman was apoplectic with rage.

"Oh, **** what the hell was that," he shouted over his radio. "My God, what the hell was that?

"I could have ******* killed myself," he added. "What is this? What is this tractor on track?

"I passed next to it," he fumed. "This is unacceptable. Remember what has happened. I can't believe this."

At the same time the race was red-flagged, and while discussion turned to the conditions and whether it was right to start the race in the first place, social media was now alight with fans questioning why there was a recovery vehicle on track while the cars were still circulating.

As fans became more angry, especially at the lack of acknowledgement from broadcasters such as Sky, Bianchi's father took to social media criticising the sport for not having learned from his son's death.

With the session stopped and the cars in the pitlane, the drivers took to social media, all expressing outrage at what had happened.

At which point the FIA issued a brief statement:

"In relation to the recovery of the incident on Lap 3, the Safety Car had been deployed and the race neutralised," it read.

"Car 10 (Gasly), which had collected damage and pitted behind the Safety Car, was then driving at high speed to catch up to the field.

"As conditions were deteriorating, the Red Flag was shown before Car 10 passed the location of the incident where it had been damaged the previous lap."

Subsequently announcing that Gasly was under investigation, the stewards revealed that the Frenchman "reached speeds of up to 250 km/h (155 mph) when completing the lap under the red flag after passing the scene of the incident".

Whatever the outcome, this appeared to be the powers-that-be shifting the onus on to the Frenchman rather than accepting that the recovery vehicle should not have been there in the first place, indeed Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA) chairman, Alex Wurz tweeted: "I think we need to discuss a tractor on-track. We can keep it short: this must NOT happen guys."

This, combined with the ongoing issue with the teams' financial submissions, and the post-race decision to award full points, is the latest in a series of high profile controversies to hit the sport.

Compounding the FIA's seeming failure to 'get it' is the fact that the official F1 website doesn't refer to the incident on its website nor in its reports on the race.

Many thought that Abu Dhabi was the low point for the sport's organisers, seemingly they do not learn.

Check out our Sunday gallery from Suzuka here.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by MadMalc114, 23/10/2022 13:09

"Whatever happened to the speed kill switch, that was going to be fitted to all Formula One cars, this would have made it impossible for anyone to have reached such high speeds, this was supposed to stop cars speeding, whilst the safety car was on track, or when the red flags were waved, this needs to be fitted to all the cars, then this kind of thing would never happen."

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2. Posted by kenji, 21/10/2022 1:13

"@elsiebc...I missed your comment. Well said and well reasoned. I agree entirely."

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3. Posted by elsiebc, 18/10/2022 7:22

"Well then, I'll say it. Jules is dead because of his actions, no one else's. He did not honor the double waved yellows and as a result he did not retain control of his own car. This excuse that they are racing drivers, driving fast is what they are going to do, somehow absolves them of having self control. This not being able to put a marshall out on the track to recover a car or debris because the drivers don't know enough to slow down and maintain control through a properly signaled area is destroying real road racing. Heaven forbid there's a serious accident and we'll have to wait for all remaining cars to return to the pits and be accounted for before it's safe to send out emergency apparatus or allow a marshall to enter the track with a fire extinguisher."

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4. Posted by kenji, 12/10/2022 12:09

"@Spindoctor...Duh. I haven't seen anyone blaming the drivers!. What I have seen though is a driver losing it when he himself increased the possibility of an extremely bad accident by ignoring the red flag track warnings and driving at maniacal speeds under those conditions. "

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5. Posted by Spindoctor, 12/10/2022 11:59

"Blaming the drivers misses the point. It's FIA's responsibility to ensure everybody's safety - that includes all the drivers, Marshalls, Medical Staff etc. The Regulations & Track infrastructure should be designed to prevent accidents involving vehicles or people other than F1 cars on the Track."

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6. Posted by kenji, 11/10/2022 11:29

"@ MaD Matt...I was about to say the very same thing. If I recall correctly a very similar thing happened with the Bianchi incident. GPS tracking at the time indicated that Bianchi did not slow when he was passing double waved yellows as well! In fact one trace I recall showed that he actually increased speed seconds prior to his off and subsequent accident. Of course it goes without saying that recovery vehicles should not be on track at any time that there are race cars still on track. Race control stated that on that particular lap Gasly hit upwards of 250KPH! "

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7. Posted by Mad Matt, 10/10/2022 6:49

"I'm with deja on this, there could have been marshals and doctors on track extracting an injured driver. No driver in those circumstances should have been going too fast to stop in those conditions, if that means 50kph then that's what you do."

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8. Posted by dejan, 10/10/2022 4:23

"The marshals and the FIA should definitely be more diligent about sending rescue vehicles on the track but what reasons does Gasly have for driving 200+ km/h with almost no visibility, having an object obstructing his vision, AND under a red flag. Red flag means that the race is suspended and there is no reason to "catch up" with anyone on the track since all cars go to the pit lane. Safety goes both ways so drivers have to take it seriously also."

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9. Posted by trackrecords, 09/10/2022 22:29

"How many dead French drivers at the Japanese GP is it going to take before the FIA makes sure that no rescue vehicle goes on track when ANY F1 car is on-track. For it happen twice in a wet Suzuka GP would have left even Oscar Wilde lost for words."

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Gasly under investigation following tractor outburst

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