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Did Formula 1 learn anything from Jules Bianchi? 'I trusted that'

Did Formula 1 learn anything from Jules Bianchi? 'I trusted that'

19-11-2020 08:07 Last update: 13:01

GPblog.com

During the qualifying for the Turkish Grand Prix there was a remarkable moment. At the beginning of Q2, there was still a recovery vehicle on the track, which reminded many drivers of the fatal accident of Jules Bianchi. Did Formula 1 learn anything?

Bizarre situation

The first session on Saturday had already been stopped several times by red flags and the rain had caused the session to run on for a long period of time. Q1 was due to be immediately followed by Q2, but due to Nicholas Latif's spin, this was not possible. The recovery vehicle was still on the track and that resulted in a dangerous situation, especially in the rain.

After the session, a lot of reaction was given to this. Marcus Ericsson wondered if they hadn't learned anything from the past and Sebastian Vettel thought that mistakes like this shouldn't be tolerated.

Masi acknowledges the mistake

Meanwhile, race director Michael Masi is aware of the error, but let Motorsport-total.com know exactly what went wrong. ''For each circuit/country, a competent person will be appointed who will determine when a safe situation is restored. He let me know that we could just start and I relied on that," says Masi.

However, the situation turned out not to be safe at all and so Masi bridged the gap with a double yellow flag on that part of the track. It took another two minutes before the truck disappeared.