Pierre Gasly was 'driving at high speed to catch up to the field,' says FIA after tractor incident at 2022 F1 Japanese GP

There is huge drama at the ongoing Japanese GP when Pierre Gasly encountered a recovery vehicle on track during a Safety Car. The FIA responded to him criticizing the driver for driving too fast in wet conditions. The response said,

"In relation to the recovery of the incident on Lap 3, the Safety Car had been deployed and the race neutralised. Car 10, which had collected damage and pitted behind the Safety Car, was then driving at high speed to catch up to the field. As conditions were deteriorating, the Red Flag was shown before Car 10 passed the location of the incident where it had been damaged the previous lap."

The response to the incident has been noted to be very poor. The truck should not have been on the track for no reason whatsoever. Pierre Gasly suffered damage to the nose of the car during the first lap carnage and had made a pitstop to change the front nose. The Frenchman was then speeding up a little to catch up to the frontrunners when he encountered the truck.

Gasly exploded on team radio, saying the truck could have killed him and citing Jules Bianchi's horrific death in similar low visibility heavy rain conditions at Suzuka eight years ago. The Marussia driver had crashed into a crane recovering a crashed car of Adrian Sutil and passed out on the spot. Bianchi fell into a coma and died of his injuries nine months later.

This incident has reawakened the debate on the safety of drivers on track and what possible measures could be taken to improve it. Several drivers and team principals expressed their confidence in the FIA to resolve the matter and get to the bottom of things. Everyone wants to know why there was a truck on the road when cars were lapping and the answer to this question is expected to be out shortly.

Pierre Gasly called to the Stewards for speeding under a red flag

Pierre Gasly was called to the stewards' office later this evening for his incident. The Frenchman was caught speeding under red flag conditions when he encountered a truck on the track. He had just come out of the pits after suffering damage to his nose on the opening lap and was speeding to catch up to the Safety car ahead. Heavy penalties are expected for the breach of the rules.

Fans of the sport believe that this is a coverup for the mistake that the governing body made. Pierre Gasly was speeding under a red flag and should be punished accordingly, but the FIA should investigate the truck being on track first. The rain has made it impossible for the race to restart, and all the drivers are currently waiting in their garages for the rain to stop so they can race.