Gasly: 'If I had lost the car, I'd be dead right now'

Pierre Gasly believes that if he had been caught out by the dangerous conditions at the start of the Japanese GP and hit a recovery vehicle that was out on the track, he would have likely been killed.

The AlphaTauri driver had been forced to pit at the end of the first lap of the race to change his front wing damaged by an advertising board that was hit and thrown in his path by the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.

Gasly rejoined the race which had been neutralized by the safety car, but the event was upgraded to a red flag just as the Frenchman passed the recovery vehicle.

He was subsequently investigated for speeding under a red flag and handed a post-race 20-second penalty.

But the incident inevitably triggered memories of Jules Bianchi's dramatic crash in the wet at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, when he slid off the track and hit a crane operating in the run-off area.

• Read also: Recovery vehicle incident at Suzuka draws anger from F1 drivers

The young Frenchman ultimately succumbed several month later to massive head injuries.

"We lost Jules eight years ago in similar conditions with a crane on track in the gravel," said a visibly upset Gasly after Sunday's race.

"I don’t understand how eight years later in similar conditions we can still see a crane, not even on the gravel but on the racing line.

"It is just not respectful towards Jules, towards his family, towards his loved ones and all of us.

"It was a dramatic incident and I think on that day we learned we don’t want to see any tractors in this kind of conditions.

"If I would have lost the car in a similar way as Carlos lost it on the lap before… I was doing 200kph but it is not the matter, even 100kph, if I would have lost it and hit a 12-tonne crane, I would’ve been dead right now.

"I am just extremely grateful that I am still standing and I am still going to be able to call my family tonight and still going to be able to call my loved ones and nothing happened.

"But really for the sake of us drivers I hope that this can be the last time that we see a crane and take such an unnecessary risk for all of us race drivers."

Gasly said that track conditions and a kink in the road at the spot where Sainz had crashed made spotting the recovery vehicle nearly impossible.

Regarding his speed at that point, he said that he was under the allowed delta time while catching up to the field.

"It is a kink so you don’t really see it and there is a safety car, we have a delta lap time to respect and I was nine seconds slower than the delta lap time," he said.

"I am catching the queue and then I saw it at the last minute and when I see it I am doing 200kph. I tried to slow down in an erratic manner because if I slammed on the brakes I would’ve lost the car and I would’ve ended up in the crane.

"I came past two metres on the right, two metres away from passing away today which I don’t think is acceptable as a race driver."

During the race's pause, a livid Gasly paid a visit to F1 race director Eduardo Freitas. He did not share any details about his conversation but the Frenchman made clear that the matter "is something we've got to discuss".

"We have a delta lap time, there is a certain process that we’ve got to follow under the safety car, I was respecting it and there was a crane on the racing line," he said.

"Today was two metres away from my front-left tyre, I obviously got extremely scared and what crossed my mind was… we all suffered from Jules’ accident and if we could go back and change the situation on that day, he would still be here.

"I just don’t think we should have risked my life, but it is something we’ve got to discuss.

"The most important thing is for the future, what I want is just to have all my colleagues safe and all of us, whether it is in F1 or in the younger categories, hopefully nobody is going to have to face a similar situation. Hopefully we can finally learn from this situation."

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