Marshals at the Red Bull Ring have responded to criticism that they were late to the scene of Carlos Sainz' dramatic retirement during the Austrian Grand Prix after his Ferrari caught fire.
The F1-75 suffered a catastrophic engine failure while chasing down Max Verstappen for second place with 16 laps remaining.
He was forced to pull over and stop the car in turn 4, but as flames erupted form the back of the car Sainz found himself unable to climb free of the cockpit because of the need to keep his foot on the brakes.
He feared that if he didn't then the car would roll back down the incline and into the path of oncoming cars. Only as the marshals finally arrived with blocks to put under the wheels was he able to jump clear.
At the time, Sainz was clearly unhappy with how long he has been forced to wait in the burning car before the marshals arrived.
“I was calling the marshals to come and help me, to put something on the tyres to stop the car rolling down but I think the whole process was a bit slow," he said on the day.
"At some point, there was so much fire that I had to really get a move on and jump out independently. I think it was just at that time that the first marshal arrived and stopped the car."
The official safety crew at the circuit has now issued a statement explaining why the response had appeared slow, saying that all procedures had been followed correctly.
“After the terrible accident of Jules Bianchi in 2014, the FIA's rules regarding recoveries and interventions on the track have been drastically tightened,” the statement said.
“Intervention is only allowed after instructions from race control.
"On the one hand, this naturally increases the safety of the drivers and marshals, but on the other hand, it has the disadvantage that interventions take a little longer.
“Several unfortunate circumstances came together,” it continued. “The place where Sainz parked the Ferrari was not visible from the marshals' stand.
"They received instructions over the radio to go to the car with fire extinguishers, and when they saw the situation, they made the decision to call in the fire engine.
“This decision had to be made within seconds and, in retrospect, was absolutely correct. If you remember Grosjean's accident [at Bahrain in 2020], in a situation like that, hand-held fire extinguishers are absolutely not enough.
"Therefore, the fire extinguisher was turned off and the car was [left], which led to that unfortunate image on TV of the marshal 'running away'.
“Another problem was that Sainz, understandably, became nervous in the vehicle and went off the brakes too early. The wedge had to be pushed under the rolling vehicle, which of course made the whole thing extremely difficult.
“We had a fire engine on the scene in less than 30 seconds, which would have brought a fast-spreading fire under control.
"Since Grosjean's accident, it is very important for us to have a lot of 'extinguishing power' on the spot immediately in order to protect the driver in the best possible way.
"Another emergency vehicle was already standing by and a third was on its way. Even if Sainz had not come out of the vehicle on his own, we would have been able to protect him in the best possible way.
"Due to the resistance of the wedge, the vehicle steered in and stopped at the guard rail. Afterwards, the fire could be extinguished with a few pushes of the extinguisher.”
Even so, the incident hadn't looked good on TV, as the marshals acknowledged.
“Of course in retrospect when you look at the TV pictures and recordings from the track cameras, you find things that need to be improved. We will also discuss these internally and together with our people.
"We will also take this incident as an opportunity to improve further," it continued. “But in this exceptional situation, because a fire is not an everyday occurrence for us either, the marshals reacted well on the whole.
“We are a team of motorsport enthusiasts who sacrifice their free time for training and exercises in order to do our best for safety along the track at such events."
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