A recovery vehicle causes a scare and some broken carbon at the Formula E opener in Saudi Arabia: “That was really dangerous!”
“People don’t seem to learn from past mistakes,” Jean-Eric Vergne scolds after the Formula E season opener in Saudi Arabia. Because in the closing minutes of the second race on Saturday, a scene occurred that no motorsport fan really wants to see again. In the middle of it all: a recovery vehicle on the track.
This was to recover the crashed car of Alexander Sims, who had involuntarily parked his Mahindra at the side of the track after contact with a wall. Race control sent the safety car onto the track, but seemed to have failed to coordinate properly with the recovery vehicle in the process.
Because the crane suddenly crossed the track just a few metres in front of the field and forced the safety car to stop. But of course some drivers, especially in the rear of the field, had not reckoned with this, so that there were a few rear-end collisions.
“That was really dangerous,” Robin Frijns showed little understanding. “I was driving behind Edo [Mortara] when suddenly the safety car had to stop. I crashed into him and all I heard behind me was carbon parts breaking,” said the Dutchman. “The crane was just in the middle of the track,” he described. “Something must have gone wrong with the communication. ”
Vergne “shocked “
But that wasn’t all: when the field passed the accident scene again a lap later, the Mahindra was hanging on, but the marshals hadn’t adequately secured the bolide that was swinging in the air, bringing it dangerously close to some riders. “The poor guy wasn’t good at keeping his crane under control,” joked race winner Edoardo Mortara.
Still shocked to see how the end of the race was handled. A Crain on track, a safety car stopping right before it in a blind corner resulting in cars piling up, no informations given to us… seems like people don’t learn from past mistakes pic.twitter.com/QtMlkEomDZ
— Jean-Eric Vergne (@JeanEricVergne) January 30, 2022
In the end, fortunately nothing happened, but the scene still caused displeasure among some pilots.
“I’m still shocked at how the end of the race was handled,” former champion Jean-Eric Vergne wrote on Twitter. “A crane on the track and a safety car stopping behind a blind corner right in front, causing a mass accident. We weren’t given any information,” he complains, saying “People don’t seem to learn from past mistakes. ”
Di Grassi: Safety car did the right thing
Vergne was there when fellow driver Jules Bianchi lost his life when he crashed into a recovery vehicle at the 2014 Formula One race in Japan. And there was also a messy scene involving a recovery vehicle in Saudi Arabia in 2019. At the time, this was still on the track together with sports officials when the Formula E race had already been reopened.
YELLOW FLAG as @AlexanderSims stops out on track!
Follow LIVE timing here 👉 https://t.co/NqfsxKU5B4
🇸🇦 2022 #DiriyahEPrix pic.twitter.com/xnTiQ5XR59
— ABB FIA Formula E World Championship (@FIAFormulaE) January 29, 2022
At least one is trying to come to the defence of those responsible: Lucas di Grassi. “I’m sure there was a good reason for what happened,” says the Brazilian. “It’s difficult to recover a car in this place anyway. There are not many places to park a crane. They did what they had to do. The safety car did it right to go around the crane so slowly.”
The safety car itself did the right thing in that situation. Whether the same is true for the recovery crew and race control is something to work through.
