ガスリーが重機とニアミス、８年前思わせる出来事に選手が怒り

【鈴鹿ＡＦＰ＝時事】９日に行われた２２Ｆ１第１８戦日本ＧＰ決勝で、アルファタウリのピエール・ガスリーがコース上で重機とニアミスしたことに対して、ドライバーたちが怒りを見せている。（写真は２２Ｆ１第１８戦日本ＧＰ決勝。広告看板がフロント部分にはまったまま走るアルファタウリのピエール・ガスリー）
　大雨の中で始まったレースは、１周目から混乱した展開になり、フェラーリのカルロス・サインツ・ジュニアがクラッシュ。マシンを撤去するために重機が出動していた。
　会場の鈴鹿サーキットでは２０１４年、ジュール・ビアンキ選手が似た状況で重機に衝突し、後に命を落とす事故が起こっている。ガスリーは、重機にぶつかっていれば「今ごろ死んでいた」と話し、「受け入れられない」出来事だと呼んだ。
　ガスリーは「僕らは８年前に同じ条件で、グラベルのクレーンとぶつかってジュールを失った」と発言。「あれから８年がたって、同じ条件で、どうしてクレーンがいるのか理解できない。しかもグラベルじゃなく、コース上にだ」とすると、「ジュールと彼の家族、彼が愛した人、僕ら全員を尊重していない」と続けた。
　ガスリーは、サインツのクラッシュで外れた広告看板がフロント部分に引っかかったため、ピットインして看板を外し、セーフティーカーの先導で走っている集団に追いつこうとしていたところだった。大雨のレースは３周目に赤旗が振られ、ガスリーには赤旗状況下での速度制限を超えていたという判断が下された。主催者は、コース上に「マーシャルがいる、あるいは障害物がある可能性」をガスリーが理解し、「スピードを出しすぎたと認めている」としている。
　しかし、この件に対しては他のドライバーも怒り、ガスリーが事故に遭わなかったのは幸運だと話している。
　２位となったレッドブルのセルヒオ・ペレスは、「どんな状況でも、マシンがコースにいるのにクレーンを出しちゃいけない」とコメント。優勝した同僚のマックス・フェルスタッペンは「どんなスピードでも」重機に衝突するのは危険だと語った。
　Ｆ１を統括する国際自動車連盟（ＦＩＡ）は、通常の手順に従ったと説明する一方で、選手から聞き取りを行った上で「徹底的な見直し」を実施すると誓った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/10/11-14:13）

Formula One drivers reacted with fury after AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly passed a tractor on the track at the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday, on the same Suzuka circuit where Jules Bianchi suffered a fatal accident in similar circumstances.
Gasly said he would be dead right now if he had hit the vehicle, which was deployed to recover Carlos Sainz's car after the Spaniard crashed in heavy rain on a chaotic first lap.
French driver Bianchi suffered a fatal crash at Suzuka in October 2014 when he collided with a tractor crane that was recovering a car.
He underwent emergency surgery and was placed in an induced coma, but never recovered and died in July 2015.
Gasly called Sunday's incident not acceptable.
We lost Jules eight years ago in similar conditions, with a crane on track in the gravel, said the Frenchman.
I don't understand how eight years later, in similar conditions, we can see a crane -- not even in the gravel, on the racing line.
It is not respectful to Jules, his family, or his loved ones, or all of us, he added.
Sunday's race began amid heavy rainfall and was red-flagged on the third lap.
Gasly was later adjudged to have been speeding under red-flag conditions.
The French driver tried to catch the field behind the safety car, having pitted to remove an advertising board that had stuck to the front of his car after Sainz had dislodged it in his crash.
- 'Thorough review' -
Race organisers said that Gasly understood that there could be marshals or obstacles on the track and that he had admitted that he was too fast.
But the incident prompted fury from other drivers, who said Gasly was lucky to escape unscathed.
In any conditions, we should never see a crane on track while the cars are out there, said Red Bull's Sergio Perez, who finished second.
You don't know what could happen. It doesn't matter about the conditions -- it should just never happen.
Perez's Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen said hitting the tractor would have been dangerous at any speed.
When you are behind, you always try to drive out of the spray, you go left or you go right because you can't really see anything, said Verstappen, who won the race and clinched his second straight world title.
That is when things happen.
The FIA, Formula One's governing body, said normal procedures had been followed but pledged that there would be a thorough review after taking feedback from drivers.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was among those calling for a full investigation into the incident.
We lost Jules Bianchi here eight years ago and that should never, ever happen, he told Sky Sports F1.
There needs to be a full investigation into why there was a recovery vehicle on the circuit.
Sainz said: Even behind a safety car we are going at 100 or 150kph and still at those speeds we don't see nothing.
I still don't know why we keep risking, in these conditions, having a tractor on track. You were going to red flag it anyway, so why risk it?