Charles Leclerc clearly less than pleased with race control, as he asked his team why there was a crane on the track during the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday.
Eight years ago, at the same race, Jules Bianchi suffered a fatal accident, hitting a recovery vehicle that had been negligently sent out to collect the crashed Sauber of Adrian Sutil.
The FIA, in response to the horrific crash, introduced the Virtual Safety Car, bringing the drivers down to a safe speed during an accident that required action from the marshals.
However, the governing body displayed last weekend that they have learned nothing from the catastrophic errors of 2014.
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Carlos Sainz crashed on the opening lap of the race when he aquaplaned in impossible conditions, and the damage to the barrier, as well as the positioning of the car, caused a red flag.
Inexplicably, race control decided to send a crane out to collect the Ferrari before the cars had made their way back to the pits and, as onboard images have suggested, even before the red flag was shown.
AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was not aware that the crane was on the circuit, and he passed it by a matter of metres, narrowly escaping what could have been another awful accident.
All of this happened under the purview of Eduardo Freitas, one of the new race directors this season, who somehow, even after what happened eight years ago, still allowed multiple lives to be put at risk.
Initially, the governing body exonerated themselves and blamed Gasly for driving too quickly, seemingly ignoring the fact that there should not have been a recovery vehicle on the circuit in the first place.
Since then though, an investigation has gotten underway as to how the incident came to unfold.
For Leclerc, this would have been a harrowing experience, especially at Suzuka, where he lost his godfather.
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Bianchi was always a great friend and mentor to Leclerc, and his family helped fund the Monegasque’s junior career.
The 24-year-old is now continuing the Frenchman’s legacy, and he is achieving at Ferrari was Bianchi was surely going to had he not been cruelly snatched from us.
On the radio, Leclerc asked, “what the f*** is this crane?” and was audibly unsettled by the negligence of the FIA, whose actions almost led to a horrific loss of life.