Carlos Sainz crashed at the exit of Turn 13 during the second free practice of the Miami Grand Prix, which left him with nagging neck pain for the rest of the weekend, after hitting a concrete wall.
The Ferrari driver spoke about the incident at Friday’s drivers’ briefing and suggested a Tecpro barrier be placed in the impact zone. This request fell on deaf ears and the wall was not modified.
On Saturday, Esteban Ocon had an accident on the same curve. The impact, which registered 51G, broke the chassis of his Alpine, which prevented him from participating in qualifying. Ocon moved back to eighth in the race but admitted he had physical problems during the test as a result of the accident.
Several drivers spoke out against the decision of those responsible for the FIA not to place a Tecpro barrier at the exit of the curve. Lando Norris is one of those who asked that more attention be paid to the pilots in these cases, and anticipated that more talks will be held during the Spanish GP weekend.
“I guess we learn from mistakes and I hope they learn from what happened,” Norris said after the race.
“As drivers, we understand things a little differently than someone who is not driving the car.
“It’s important that when [pilots] give advice, it’s taken into account and acted on, especially when I think there’s a much bigger consequence of not having a Tecpro there than if there was a Tecpro there, for example, and it’s something simple”.
“Especially when it happens once, we said something, nothing was done. It happened again and it was even worse. People just have to listen to us.”
“We are the ones driving the cars. We know more than them in many aspects, they know more than us in others. We just have to work more together.”
“But, right now, we don’t seem to be heard much.”
Esteban Ocon’s Alpine A522 after his accident at turn 13
Norris added that it was “a fairly important safety aspect” where the FIA had not followed the drivers’ directions and that it was also “very costly”.
“[The impact] broke Esteban [Ocon’s] chassis,” Norris said. “They just need to take more action.”
Ocon praised Alpine’s efforts to get the repairs completed overnight so he could enter Sunday’s race, saying “everything was broken.”
Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer appreciated that it’s easy to say a different decision should have been made with the benefit of hindsight, but he also called on the FIA to look into the decision it made.
“Looking back, the FIA should also do a review,” Szafnauer said.
“My personal opinion is that if we had had a Tecpro barrier there, it would have been safer. The FIA’s job is not to protect the cars, but the protection of the cars and the drivers is very interlinked. , the pilot may also be damaged.”
Szafnauer also wanted to refer to the fact that Ocon had to miss qualifying due to damage to his car: “The other thing we should perhaps look at is the condition of the third car.”
“In the old days, it would have been the T-car. I don’t think we have to go to the T-car, because then you need more people,” explained the manager, referring to when Formula 1 teams could have a third car fitted to the box.
“If the car is a little bit more built with the same parts that you already have here, then you have a better chance of fixing it for qualifying.”
