“I could have killed myself!” » – The black anger of Pierre Gasly because of a tractor on the track

Extremely frightening scene for Pierre Gasly in Suzuka. While the Habs had gone through the pits to change his damaged front wing under safety car regime, the Norman emerged far behind the peloton he was trying to join. Until he encountered a tractor working on the track, in absolutely terrible visibility conditions and while he was obviously driving as fast as possible to get back to his place! 

The images are chilling. Would the lessons of the past and in particular those of the terrible accident of 2014 which ended up costing the life of Jules Bianchi not have been learned? On his radio, Pierre Gasly was legitimately mad with rage, with the unpleasant feeling that his life had just been played with. "What is this bullshit ! Why is there a tractor on the track? I just passed by! This is unacceptable ! What is this bullshit ? I can’t believe it!”

I cannot believe what I've just witnessed. At Suzuka of all places https://t.co/OmIpiYQu86

— Tom Bellingham (@TomP1Bellingham) October 9, 2022

As the red flag was waved due to track damage and intensifying rain, all drivers were asked to return to the pit lane. The Norman did not take offense in his garage. “I could have killed myself, I could have killed myself” he said for the first time in his garage, speaking to the team's communications manager, Fabiana Valenti. Same speech then to the engineers on the wall.

The FIA ​​reacted immediately with this enigmatic message, calling into question the speed of the Normand more than the responsibility of the race direction or the intervention services. “Regarding the third lap incident, the safety car was deployed and the race neutralized. Car 10 (Gasly), which had suffered damage and had parked behind the safety car, was then traveling at high speed to catch up with the peloton. As conditions deteriorated, the red flag was shown before car 10 passed the incident site where it had been damaged the previous lap. 

Obviously too light a response given the seriousness of what happened. However, race management confirmed that they would investigate the incident at turn 12 on the second lap after the race.