11/10/2022
NEWS STORY
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.