16/11/2020
NEWS STORY
An already chaotic session, witnessed a dramatic intake of breath from both fans and drivers on Saturday, when a recovery crane was seen at Turn 8 moments after the green light had been given to get Q2 underway.
The crane had been used to recover Nicholas Latifi's Williams following his off at the end of Q1, and while it should have left the scene of the incident, its egress was delayed due to it being unable to negotiate a suitable gap in the barriers in time.
"It was quite close to the barrier opening and the crane was on its way," explains 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," he added.
"With the benefit of hindsight, you would do something different but based on it all with the available information at the time, that's the call that we made.
"Obviously it was a double-yellow flag anyway, that's normal protocol even when there aren't cars on the track. For that sector, it was extended even further and it was an out-lap."
In light of the incident, which, with Jules Bianchi's accident at Suzuka in 2014 still very much in mind, saw criticism from fans and drivers alike, the FIA is to revise its procedures.
"From an FIA perspective we review every incident that takes place, be it minor, major, in between or otherwise and any point in time, during a session, outside of a session and continuously learn from everything that takes place," said Masi.
"From that end we will continue to learn, no different from a team learning about different elements over a weekend and in between. We are absolutely no different.
"From our end, as I've said many times, safety is our number one priority. You learn from everything every time a car rolls out pit lane, every time you look at something different."
"We are all humans, and mistakes happen," said Sebastian Vettel, a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, in response to the incident. "But this mistake has a zero tolerance.
"We're all well aware and I'm very confident that it will not happen in the future again," he added. "But we will for sure talk about this and disclose the reasons why."
"Obviously, I think we have all been a bit shocked to see that," added Charles Leclerc, a close friend of Bianchi. "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."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Istanbul, here.