F1 Drivers Furious Over Tractor on Track During F1 Japanese Grand Prix

• Typically, Race Control will permit the use of recovery vehicles once the field has been safely bunched together behind the Safety Car.

• On Sunday, during the F1 Japanese Grand Prix, a recovery vehicle was on track before the field of cars was safely aligned behind the Safety Car.

• Pierre Gasly, who had to drive to the delta permitted under the Safety Car and was at higher speed, came close to striking the vehicle, and radioed his fury in the immediate aftermath.

There was a frightening and unacceptable incident on the second lap at Sunday's F1 Japanese Grand Prix Japan that enraged the drivers.

On the first lap, Carlos Sainz crashed through the long-radius right-hander in the second sector, and Pierre Gasly struck Rolex sponsor signage that had bounced onto the track after it was hit by Sainz’s Ferrari.

That necessitated the deployment of the Safety Car, with Gasly pitting for front wing repairs, and he re-joined adrift of the field at the back. As the pack of 17 drivers approached the scene of Sainz’s accident, a large recovery vehicle bearing resemblance to a tractor was on the track. Gasly, who had to drive to the delta permitted under the Safety Car and was at higher speed, came close to striking the vehicle, and radioed his fury in the immediate aftermath.

The race was red-flagged just as Gasly passed the scene of the accident.

Typically, Race Control will permit the use of recovery vehicles once the field has been safely bunched together behind the Safety Car at neutralized speed.

The incident brought back haunting memories of F1 driver Jules Bianchi's crash in Japan in 2014 that led to his death.

Bianchi suffered fatal injuries at the same circuit, in similarly wet conditions. On that occasion, Bianchi lost control under double waved yellow flags and struck a recovery vehicle that was tending to another crashed car. Bianchi died from the injuries suffered in the impact in July 2015, nine months after the accident.

The FIA’s own report into Bianchi’s accident outlined that it is “imperative to prevent a car ever hitting a crane and/or the marshals working near it.”