09/10/2022
NEWS STORY
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.