Vettel feels F1 does not remember Bianchi accident enoughi: 'We were lucky'

The footage of a tractor suddenly looming in the pouring rain on the Suzuka Circuit has set tongues wagging quite loudly. Sebastian Vettel feels that the fate of Jules Bianchi, who suffered a serious accident in Japan with fatal consequences, is 'probably not remembered enough'.

Memory of Bianchi

Several drivers expressed their anger during and after the Japanese Grand Prix. Pierre Gasly in particular showed a lot of emotion, an understandable reaction as he maintained a close friendship with Bianchi. The AlphaTauri driver passed the tractor (and a marshall, who was also on the asphaslt) at high speed. Due to the poor weather conditions, the vehicle could hardly be seen, so the big question was what procedure the FIA followed to allow the tractor onto the track in this situation.

Vettel, who along with George Russell and others heads the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA), will no doubt start asking critical questions about it at the next meeting. The Aston Martin driver feels that not enough thought is being given to Bianchi's tragic accident and thinks several measures should be looked at to prevent such a situation from happening again.

"After what happened, there’s a lot of things that led to this circumstance which we need to understand first," Vettel said in conversation with Sky Sports. "Visibility is close to none when you’re inside the car following with a spray. We’re lucky that nothing happened but we need to understand and make sure that it just mustn’t happen."

Vettel believes the tyres were also a factor in the resulting situation. The Formula 1 field was on a soaking wet track with non-working rain tyres, so everyone started on intermediates resulting in several crashes on the first lap. According to Vettel, it is therefore high time the problems with the full wets were resolved.