FIA Justify Dangerous Crane Episode During Turkish Grand Prix Qualifying

Safety protocols have become a major part and parcel in F1 races over time. Yesterday’s Turkish Grand Prix qualifying, however, raised a minor concern revolving around this fact.

Some incidents require more attention than others. But in general the idea is to protect the drivers and everyone involved on the track. And the particular incident in discussion, is the pickup crane being on the sidelines, while Q2 resumed.

FIA race director Michael Masi has stated that there will be a detailed investigation to review procedures afterwards. But, what had exactly happened which led to this situation?

The FIA sent the F1 recovery vehicle to clear Latifi’s Williams

Following Nicholas Latifi’s spinoff into the runoff area, they sent a recovery vehicle at the end of the Q1 to clear the car. The expectation was that it would happen even before the Q2 phase of qualifying resumed.

However, when it became that it would take more time, the marshals waved double yellow flags to further slow down the cars during their out laps. Although it was not ideal, Masi believed that a stricter review of protocol is necessary.

“As soon as it became apparent that the recovery vehicle had been delayed in moving completely into the barrier opening, we extended the area of double-waved yellow flags from Turn 8 to the entry point of Turn 7 to further slow down the cars on their out laps.”

“Clearly this is not a scenario we want to see. And with the benefit of hindsight we would have done it differently and held the cars until the recovery was completed. We will review our procedures to minimise the likelihood of similar incidents in future.” concluded Masi on the topic.

Turkish Grand Prix qualifying posed a lot of dangers for the drivers

The race weekend so far has been nothing more than a disaster for F1 drivers. Following the lack of grip on the track surface, downpour complicated matters for those trying to set decent lap timings.

But, the resumption of Q2 whilst the recovery crane was still there, became a safety threat. There is no necessity to send out cars until and unless they have fully dealt the incidents with.

Given the way things are going at the Istanbul Park, collisions might be a real possibility. One would hope the F1 marshals and FIA Race Control are on guard to adjudicate them, if that happens.