Pierre Gasly says the sheer lack of visibility that prevailed at Spa on Sunday was a harbinger of a “big accident” and justified the decision not to race.
The AlphaTauri driver rued the horrendous weather and unrelenting rain in the Ardennes that deprived everyone, and especially the fans, of a great Belgian Grand Prix.
But the Frenchman believed that conditions were just too “extreme” to green light the event and temp fate.
“It’s been a long day and I’m very disappointed that we didn’t get to race,” said Gasly.
“I think we all feel very sorry for the fans that have stayed with us in the rain all day, without any racing, and I would like to thank them all for staying until the end.
“However, the conditions were very extreme, I don’t think I’ve driven in conditions worse than this before. I think that the problem was that if anyone spun in the first lap, there was absolutely no visibility and there would’ve been a big accident.
“If a car stops on track for whatever reason or crashes and many other cars are coming right behind, we know the consequences if a car gets T-boned or something like this.
©AlphaTauri
“The problem is you always rely on all the guys in front of you to stay on track and go at a similar speed that you’re going. Because if someone is stopped and you arrive at 200-250km/h, visibility was about 30 metres.
“Once you see the car at 200-250 there’s no way you’re stopping. We’ve seen enough horrible things here on this track.
“We know how dangerous it can be to race here, so this [stopping the race] was absolutely the correct decision.”
Gasly suggested that F1 should conduct some research into solutions that could possibly reduce the amount of spray generated by the cars on a rain-soaked track.
“I think we should work on trying to reduce the spray behind the cars, because that’s the real thing,” he said. “When I was watching the medical car, obviously going at much lower speed, but the spray is a lot less than what we do with our cars.
“So I think that’s one area where F1 should focus on for the next years, because if you reduce the spray and you have better visibility then okay, conditions are very tricky, you may have aquaplaning, you may have a lot of sliding, you might be very slow.
“But then after it’s up to us drivers to be at the limit of the grip we have, but at least we see. And on Sunday the problem was the visibility.”
Having lined up sixth on Sunday’s grid, Gasly was awarded four points for trodding around behind the safety car for three laps, but the AlphaTauri charger said the effort wasn’t worthy of a reward.
“I don’t feel like I deserved any points for what I’ve done,” he said. “I just followed the safety car. I didn’t crash in the laps to the grid, but that’s the only thing I’ve done!
“I don’t know if we deserved any points.”
Gasly’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda was on the same page as the Frenchman regarding race control’s decision not to unleash the field in the dangerous conditions.
“It was clearly not possible to race today, especially for any drivers from P7 onwards, I think the visibility was just too poor,” said the Japanese driver.
“It would’ve been far too dangerous to race in these conditions here today, particularly on such a high-speed track like Spa, so for safety I think the FIA made the right decision today.
“Obviously, it’s disappointing on a personal note to not have had the opportunity to race for points today, but safety is far more important.”
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