Many questions have been raised in the wake of the Japanese GP, but while all fellow drivers were concerned for 25-year-old Jules Bianchi after his crash, most felt it had been right to race in the rain from looming Typhoon Phanfone.
However, Brazilian Felipe Massa, who suffered a fractured skull when a spring from a car ahead of him hit his helmet at the 2009 Hungarian GP, felt the race should have been stopped before Adrian Sutil and Bianchi crashed at the same corner a lap apart as the rain worsened and light faded.
“I was already screaming on the radio five laps before the safety car [came out after Bianchi’s crash] that there was too much water on the track,” Williams driver Massa said.
“They took too long [to bring out the safety car] and it was dangerous, so we saw that there were some crashes at the end.”
Sutil said the deteriorating light had made it more difficult to spot patches of standing water on the track as the rain worsened.
“We got more rain and it was dark, so visibility was getting less and less – and this corner was a tricky one the whole way through. You couldn’t see where the wet patches were,” Sutil said.
But only two cars crashed in the soaking conditions and other drivers said they had known worse conditions.
“I’ve had much worse races in terms of aquaplaning,” said Lewis Hamilton, who was 16 seconds in front of Rosberg when the race was stopped but little more than nine seconds ahead in the race classifications taken from the last completed lap.
Niki Lauda, the great Austrian driver now chairman of the Mercedes team and who famously withdrew – just months after the fiery crash that almost killed him – from the wet 1976 GP at Fuji that handed James Hunt his world title, felt Sunday’s race had been properly run.
While he had wanted it to start earlier (impractical because of the global TV schedule) and said there was a case for the safety car to be activated as soon as Sutil crashed, he felt officials had done the right things but that Bianchi’s crash was a reminder that F1 was a dangerous sport.
“Motor racing is dangerous. We get used to it when nothing happens, and then suddenly we are all surprised,” Lauda said.
“But we always have to be aware that motor racing is always dangerous – and this accident is a coming together of various different things.
“One car goes off, the [recovery] truck comes out and the next car comes off – and this was very unfortunate.”
The essence of the problem was that the recovery vehicle was inside the fence rather than being able to lift a wrecked car from outside the fence as at many places at many other circuits.
Bianchi hitting such a heavy vehicle was worse than his car making contact with a safety fence.
Bianchi has been groomed through the Ferrari Academy and placed at the lowly Marussia team, which uses Ferrari engines, to gain experience.
The highlight of his career has been ninth place in this year’s Monaco GP, the two points he scored the first for Marussia in its five seasons in the sport and reportedly worth about $50 million to the team provided it remains ahead of rival Caterham at the end of the season – now four races away in Abu Dhabi.
Grave fears were held for Bianchi’s life on Sunday night, with the podium celebrations muted – Hamilton, Rosberg and Vettel barely clinking the champagne bottles.
As sympathies were expressed for the injured Frenchman, popular among his peers, Daniel Ricciardo said: “Right now we’re all thinking about Bianchi – that’s the biggest concern for us. It’s not nice when we don’t know if the driver is OK [after a big crash].”
Hamilton’s 30th GP victory leaves him just one win behind Nigel Mansell’s record by a British driver.
But a horror season for Ferrari got worse as it failed to score a world championship point after a record run of 81 successive races in the points.
Fernando Alonso retired his Ferrari soon after the second start behind the safety car with an electrical problem – “The car switched off … maybe some water in some connections,” he said – and Kimi Raikkonen endured balance problems and struggled with the tyres on his similar car.
Exasperated Alonso felt it was another opportunity lost. The tough conditions would have suited the Spanish master against rivals in superior machinery.
After almost five seasons without a world title at the Italian team, Alonso is preparing to extricate himself from his contract two years early to go elsewhere in search of a third crown.
Vettel will take his place at Ferrari, although that is not official yet, and an announcement surely will be forthcoming soon that Alonso will reunite with McLaren and have Honda power behind him next season.