While it was the recovery vehicle that grabbed the headlines on Sunday, Sebastian Vettel has admitted concern at the decision to start the race on full wets.

It is understandable that there was an outcry over the recovery vehicle, especially when one considers the events of 2014, however, four-time world champion, Sebastian Vettel believes that Race Control had already made a mistake that compromised safety by making the full wets mandatory.

"There's a lot of things that led to this circumstance, which we need to understand," the German, a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, told Sky Sports. "First the entire grid leaves on the wrong tyre, which we are all to blame for, but also no-one to blame because we are in the same pressure position.

"We have an intermediate tyre that is a lot faster than an extreme tyre, but the extreme tyre is the tyre for the condition, but it's so slow you are pressured to go onto the next tyre. That needs to be improved. That would have solved the problem.

"We are not able to race when there is some water on the track because the water drainage is probably not good enough and we've known this for years.

"One thing leads to another and we had a crash with Carlos going off, visibility is close to none when you are inside the car following with the spray. We are lucky that nothing happened but we need to understand and make sure it just mustn't happen."

Referring to the recovery vehicle, he said: "It's just not acceptable. We spoke about this also in the drivers' briefing, the service car should never be on the road when we are out in these conditions. Not even when there's a safety car.

“I think we must just understand that today was one of these odd days where things could have gone wrong. And then somebody might pay the price.

“A marshal, that is volunteer here to help and do a great job, or a driver in the car. Even the slightest injuries are unnecessary. But we had a very traumatic scene eight years ago, so it was way too close to the repetition today.”

As the sport's powers that be, ever mindful of the beneficial influence of Drive to Survive, seek more drama, more spice, the drivers appear to be overlooked, other than for providing controversy and laughs... however, as he prepares to hang up his helmet, surely Seb would make the perfect go-between, an experienced voice at the FIA in terms of safety.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Pavlo, 14/10/2022 8:37

"@dejan - I think it's not a problem of tires. Real issue is visibility, in the conditions where full wets are suitable, they don't see enough behind other cars, and by the time visibility is OK they have no more standing water and intermediates are good enough.
One solution may be to have some covers over the wheels to reduce amount of water in the air. Not nice, but if we want to see then drive the race under rain, I don't see other options."

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2. Posted by Pavlo, 14/10/2022 7:47

"@givememychoice - I am ready whenever you or anyone pays for it. I drove multiple different vehicles on a track (not F1, a bit too expensive for me), and 100% sure I can drive safely. Not fast, but safely.
How motorbike similar to F1 - same type of helmet, no windscreen, no wipers, no radars/lidars whatever => exactly the same visibility.
"The nature of competition" - NO! Under the green flags Gasly would be right, but yellow and red are there for a reason. At that moment the first priority of the driver is the safety of the others.
Yes, obviously they will try to win some seconds, but the same applies to the road: I may have 1000 reasons to need to arrive faster, but as long as it's the public road (or F1 track under flags) it does not justify anyone driving 250 on the wet road."

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3. Posted by dejan, 13/10/2022 18:33

"The investigation will show what really happened but Vettel's point is completely ignored by the FIA and Pirelli - F1 needs a wet weather tyre that is between the Extreme Wet and Intermediate so that drivers can make the safe choice and not compromise their race or safety."

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4. Posted by givememychoice, 13/10/2022 10:44

"@pavlo Id like to see you "show them". Not sure how a motorbike is greater similarity to F1. You are also not comparing similar situations. A track is completely different to the road. When driving in the wet are you worried about the core temperature dropping to the point of having no grip?
The nature of competition is you will push. Gasly was well inside the delta time, so he was being advised externally of a speed he could go and was driving well below that.

As for a truck not being any worse than a car. right. Bianchi hit the truck at 125kph. He suffered 254G. The highest survived G is 214 by Kenny Brack. The trucks basically dont move if hit, another car does. That movement dissipates the force.

And absolutely, the FIA need to protect the marshalls. And the drivers. The problem is, the rules. Drivers should "slow down". Its vague. as we see with the budget cap, even with a prescribed limit, teams will push it. When its totally ambiguous, what do you expect? The rules need tightened around this. Have some kind of "zone" where the limit is 80kph or whatever. How do we come to the right plan? Probably with a rethink..."

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5. Posted by Pavlo, 12/10/2022 20:11

"@Spindoctor - this sounds like a farce. 20 best drivers in the world can’t safely control the car in the rain. Give me the car - I will show them.
I sometimes drive (a motorcycle for greater similarity with F1) in worse conditions, and somehow have no problems with heavy vehicles around, or pedestrians.
There is no such thing as zero visibility. They don’t see a lot at 250 km/h - slow down to 50 and you will see more than enough to safely drive.
I still don’t see what makes this truck any worse than the car of Sainz in practically the same place. Not talking about the possibility of something similar to Antoine Hubert."

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6. Posted by Spindoctor, 12/10/2022 11:38

"I agree 100% with Seb when he is quoted:
"It's just not acceptable. We spoke about this also in the drivers' briefing, the service car should never be on the road when we are out in these conditions. Not even when there's a safety car."

The decision should NOT be on any individual's shoulders. In these extreme situations (zero visibility) cars should be sent immediately to pitlane. I appreciate that there might be a serious time-critical medical emergency, but the danger of any support vehicles on-track with F1 cars still running, even behind Safety Car must surely outweigh whatever time might be saved."

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7. Posted by Pavlo, 11/10/2022 18:52

"@givememychoice - no absolutely not. The fact that Grosjean crashed in good weather doesn’t mean this can never happen in rain. Even if this particular vehicle was not needed, there may be conditions when heavy vehicle is needed, so drivers must(!) assume the vehicle can be there.
“2 marshals ran to see to the car” - fabulous! Whom should F1 protect - volunteer who rans to potentially save another life without any protection, or a millionaire in safest possible vehicle, controlling this vehicle himself, who just ignores the rules to get a bit of advantage?
I mean really, F1 must investigate why the vehicle was there and prevent it. But also must ensure drivers are fully under control of the cars under the flags, even if it means driving 10kmh."

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8. Posted by givememychoice, 11/10/2022 16:13

"@pavlo "the service car should never be on the road when we are out in these conditions". The conditions are the critical thing. Grosjean was in perfectly clear (night) visibility. It was red flagged before the end of the lap, so nobody passed the incident. There was no "heavy" vehicle, just the medical car.
And there should be a rethink.

What I believe happened, is that the vehicle did not have authority to enter the track. Reason for this is that 2 marshalls ran on to see to the car. One of them then signals to the tractor that he needs it, and it immediately comes on. I dont believe that the clerk of the course was consulted. (they may have been consulted for the marshalls going on - I havent been a marshall, so dont know the processes). What you see from the fan video i have seen is that as a static figure, the visibility was generally very good, so a marshall would see things being quite clear, and not understand the poor visibillity at speed.

We need to be clear that "heavy" vehicles are ONLY permitted when the clerk of the course has allowed it. This should be when it is safe. This is a variable, but depends on location (racing line etc), weather, spread out of vehicles.

Deltas under a SC condition should be reduced significantly.

And to clarify, Im not attempting to blame the marshalls as such. They are great, they allow racing to happen, and they are volunteers. If there is fault, IMO then the processes are to blame - the marshalls shouldnt be allowed to be accidentally causing this.

The FIA allowed a situation where a) wet tyres arent used for the known reasons. b) a delay in the red flag (3 1/2 minutes after the yellow, 3 minutes after the SC). c)a situation that is common of "injured" cars, going fast to catch up to the SC. D) Marshalls entering a live track when drivers cant see them, E) Recovery vehicle entering live track when drivers cant see them. F) them being at the point of an accident due to aquaplaning. we have seen the pile up at nurburgring in the wet.G) why doesnt the tractor have really bright lights....there are more, but i suspect you may have stopped reading!
"

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9. Posted by KKK, 11/10/2022 15:18

"Why hols the Japan GP in the monsoon season? Put the race in May"

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10. Posted by Pavlo, 11/10/2022 11:16

"I completely disagree with his statement. Yes, in this particular situation the rescue vehicle was not necessary on the track, but in general drivers must assume the rescue vehicles be deployed under the yellow flags (even more under SC and red flags), this can be crucial for saving some driver’s life - think Grosjean, what if medical car waited for all the cars to get to the pits?"

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Vettel calls for safety rethink

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