In an amateur video that’s been making the rounds on social media, you can clearly see Jules Bianchi impact the tractor that was trying to carry Adrian Sutil’s car away.
Another thing you see is a man in the marshal’s post, waving a green flag as the crash happens and then afterwards. Many people, including us momentarily, were baffled as to why this green flag was waving.
The marshal did nothing wrong, but the FIA did
On closer inspection of the video and FIA rulebook, it becomes clear. The marshal himself did nothing wrong. He followed the rules and did what was required of him. My problem is with the FIA themselves.
The man was waving double yellow flags when Sutil originally crashed, as instructed by race control. Once the tractor lifted the Sauber, it began to move back towards the opening in the wall. Once it moved past the marshal post, he immediately switched to a green flag.
This was a bad accident, and whatever the cause, we all regret what happened to Jules.
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But senior officials claiming that this was a ‘freak accident’ is utterly ridiculous.
Claims that ‘nobody could expect a car to go off at the same point’ are verging on the bizarre, and very much beyond belief.
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We all know that cars often ‘go off’ at the exact same point, during wet conditions.
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We now have Wurz telling drivers to not comment on the accident (what???), like as if they can’t contribute to the debate…… even though they were the ones driving at the time.
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Thankfully we have the amateur video….. so we can all see what happened (even though official footage has been suppressed!!!!).
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What is abundantly clear is that, with the flashing light in his cockpit, indicating ‘double waved yellows’ approaching the accident…… Jules was going too fast.
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What barriers could be added to a JCB, to prevent serious impact, is not clear, when you consider the width of the tyre walls around the circuit?
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Hopefully, better procedures will be employed, as a result of this crash. Possibly even a redesign of the lifting tractors, providing them with a steel skirt……. meaning the nose of the car will impact first, allowing the safety cage to work it’s wonders.
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But clearly….. drivers need to be educated to slow right down under waved double yellows.
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Did the change to ‘green flag’ have an effect (and was it a mistake)?
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From what I saw…. the damage (speed) was already done, when approaching the accident spot.
All this will have been recorded by the onboard cameras…… but whether we, the public, get to know the truth, may depend upon Jules making a full recovery.
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Either way…. F1 has a tremendous safety record in recent years; so whether we get to know the full facts, may be irrelevant, as long as drivers, marshals, and F1 management learn from this accident.
Update, from an interview with Massa on Crashnet:
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“Perez admitted the drivers’ competitive instincts take over in a yellow flag zone and believes the FIA needs a solution to control speed in such situations”.
…… “As a driver you know that you have to show a lift to the FIA, so it’s what you do; you try to do that lift to prove that you are lifting. But if we are all honest we know that we want to lift as little as possible and go as fast as possible through there, showing a lift”.
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Effectively, Perez is stating: Every driver’s instinct (in these situations) is to risk their own lives, and the lives of the volunteer marshals who are attending the accident.
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Presumably he is stating the truth…… and therefore automatic systems need to be developed to remove the drivers choice.
For example: An automated limiter switch to slow the car down safely, until the warning condition is removed…… they already have a dashboard light…. the light trigger could therefore be applied to a ‘limiter’, thus removing the human element that clearly fails in these circumstances.