“We lost a life in this situation years ago,” Fans react as Lando Norris blasts the authorities at Suzuka for unsafely deploying a tractor on the track
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Lando Norris
The Japanese GP is currently red-flagged after 3 laps were run, and right now, and the restart was suspended. But even lap 1 had plenty to digest. Carlos Sainz aquaplaned, and was out of the race on lap 1 itself. Alex Albon suffered a hydraulic failure. Lance Stroll, on the other hand, made up 8 places.
While Sainz’ crash has its own debate, there is another incident, most notably, and most controversially: There was a tractor on the track. The 2014 Japanese Grand Prix started in similar conditions, and also involved a tractor in a horrific accident. On lap 43 of the race, after losing control of his car, Jules Bianchi collided with the left-rear wheel of a tractor crane, an incident which eventually took his life.
Safe to say, with the incident in hindsight, and the extremely low visibility, people are not pleased with the tractor being present on track. At all. It was a disaster waiting to happen. Pierre Gasly drove past it just around the time the race was red-flagged, and he was visibly angry, exclaiming: “What is this tractor?! What is this tractor on track? I passed next to it, this is unacceptable! Remember what has happened. I don’t believe this!“ Other drivers have also made their displeasure known, including Lando Norris.
Lando Norris: “This is unacceptable.”
Writing on his Twitter, the McLaren driver also referenced the Jules Bianchi incident: “How’s this happened!? We lost a life in this situation years ago. We risk our lives, especially in conditions like this. We wanna race. But this… Unacceptable.” and he is support by, really, the whole of the Formula 1 world in this.
Similarly, Sergio Perez also chipped in: “How can we make it clear that we never want to see a crane on track? We lost Jules because of that mistake. What happened today is totally unacceptable!!!!! I hope this is the last time ever I see a crane on track!”
Pierre Gasly has also been summoned to the stewards for ‘speeding under red flag’ which has just added more fuel to the fire. The decision by itself is fair, but in the larger context with the tractor crane on track, people are not happy with what seems like brushing off the very obvious safety hazard of the tractor.
But it’s not like Gasly was the only driver to pass the track. Before him, there was a whole host of cars that went by the crane. Charles Leclerc also made his displeasure clear, saying: “Guys, what the f**k is this crane?”
There was also a marshal on track as cars passed by.
The race is supposed to restart at 16:15 local time, but there will be less than an hour of running. And we might not even get half of that if conditions are found unsatisfactory, in which case the race is likely to be cancelled. Points will only be awarded if there are at least 2 total laps completed in ‘normal’ racing conditions, a prerequisite which is not yet fulfilled.
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)