F1 stewards penalised Gasly for speeding during red flag
Oct.13 - Pierre Gasly has some of the blame for a highly dangerous situation that occurred during the Japanese GP.
The Frenchman, and many of his fellow Formula 1 drivers, was livid with the FIA after a heavy vehicle entered the Suzuka circuit to recover Carlos Sainz's crashed Ferrari even though cars were still circulating at speed.
"If I was two meters to the left, I would have been dead," Gasly said.
Pierre Gasly driving with debris on the AlphaTauri AT03 back to the pits (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)
However, some immediately pointed the finger at the AlphaTauri driver himself.
"What's Gasly doing?" veteran Blick correspondent Roger Benoit said. "Driving at 250kph in a red flag."
Indeed, even F1's governing body penalised Gasly, who the Suzuka stewards said "admitted he was too fast".
"I can understand the criticism from the drivers," said former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher, referring to the fury about the presence on the circuit of a recovery vehicle.
"But it does not justify Gasly chasing the pack at 250kph at that time. It was anything but smart. I think both sides need to question themselves."
However, the late Jules Bianchi's father Philippe lashed out at the FIA for suggesting that Gasly had driven too fast past the recovery vehicle.
"That's laughable," Philippe, whose son died after crashing into a similar vehicle at Suzuka in 2014, told RMC. "It's what they would have said to Jules as well.
"I say to myself 'Where is the respect for Jules?' They're not cannon fodder. Nothing justifies giving the order."
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I commend Phillipe Bianchi on this; a difficult statement to have to make having lost a son so pointlessly.
It's becoming apparent, in my eyes, there needs to be a sea change at the FIA.
Used to be a red flag meant immediately stop in place. The teams bitched that the cars should be allowed to park in the pits. The flag means the track is closed to racing and the mandate is that you crawl back to the pits, emphasis on crawl. 250 kph is egregious and gasman should have been immediately excluded from competition and relegated to the back in the next race.
You want better race management?...give the director some teeth, ala Charlie Whiting.
Ok , again everyone hyped up , fair enough BUT PG 250 KPH-Halo, JB 126 Kph No Halo- which is why he died. fair to compare ? , you cant give the RD Teeth, if you do and he uses them on LH, well you know what will happen more tantrums and tiaras, I get PB I do, but its the NO Halo not the speed in Jules Demise, ok he hit a truck , but Senna didn't, he'd have been fine with the Halo in 94 all in my own opinion naturally
Hitting a 10 ton truck 🚚 at 200+ kph will undoubtedly result in a fatality regardless of the halo
2022 🚗 cars have proven to disintegrate and split in a major impact
Gasly is lucky to be alive
He should be ashamed of himself having disregard not only for himself but the Stewards in the firing line
Race bans would be a minimum sanction
Disintegrate yes ala RG but the Halo life saving design is proven again IMO
Do you think that a halo would have been effective in this instance
what planet are you on?
Pull his super license for next season and fine the whole team many millions
Where was the contact between the pit wall and Gastwat who had the audacity to blame everyone but himself
His foot was on the loud 😳 pedal. Did he forget where the brakes 🤔 were?
Do we know how long the red had been on before PG passed the truck? Or how long the red had been on before the trucks came out?
Surely there should be a course car protecting the truck and marshals with mega red to warn the drivers.