Last weekend one of the best races of the season took place, we are talking about the Turkish Grand Prix. During this date, Lewis Hamilton managed to conquer his seventh world drivers' championship, so that the British driver and Michael Schumacher are now the only two drivers with the most championships (7) in the history of Formula 1. Sergio Perez achieved his ninth podium in the highest category of the motorsports with Sebastian Vettel on the last step of the podium, this being the first of 2020. The public hailed the event as one of the best Grand Prix that has been raced this season and even in past seasons. The rain was present and therefore the result of this was totally unpredictable. The qualifying session was also highly acclaimed since, simply by seeing the result, Lance Stroll with pole position, Max Verstappen in second place and Checo Perez in third place, we can realize that it was something very out of the ordinary. However, a decision by race control was not to the liking of some people, including some drivers and teams, in this article we will explain the different points of view.

After qualifying was delayed due to bad weather, when Q1 ended, Nicholas Latifi's Williams got stuck in the gravel trap after he lost control of his car at Turn 8 of the Istanbul Circuit. The marshals, who were doing their best job in the shortest time possible, were already at the scene of the incident, as was the crane to get the Williams out. It should be noted that the extraction of the car was being carried out in the time between Q1 and Q2. A few minutes later, race control decided to start Q2, however, the crane and some marshals were still on the track, finishing the extraction of the Williams. This took many people by surprise as the track was wet, the control of the cars is more unstable. A small mistake in the said area and it could have ended very badly. We must remember the fatal accident of Jules Bianchi in Japan in 2014, when he lost control of his car and hit a crane. Michael Masi, who serves as the race director, does not regret making this decision and these were his words:

“It was pretty close to the barrier, the crane was on its way and they [marshals] assured us it would be fine and really clear. As I said, with the benefit of hindsight, you would do something different, but based on all of this and the information available at the time, that was the decision we made. " The Formula 1 Race Director affirmed.

Sebastian Vettel showed his dissatisfaction with the FIA ​​for having made this dangerous decision and the German driver claimed that he had "zero tolerance" for this "error" made by race control. These were his statements:

“I believe that we are all human and that mistakes happen. But this error has a zero tolerance. I think we are all very aware and I am very sure that it will not happen again in the future. I'm sure we will talk about this and reveal the reasons." The Ferrari driver commented.

In response, Masi commented that the drivers were warned that there was a crane on the track, specifically at Turn 8, in addition to that the instruction had been given to wave a double yellow flag in the area so that the drivers would slow down enough so that no accident occurred.

"From the perspective of the FIA, we review every incident that takes place, be it minor, major, intermediate or otherwise, at any time during a session, outside of the session and we continually learn from everything that happens." Michael Masi stated. “From there, we will continue to learn, it is no different than a team learning about different elements over a weekend. We are not absolutely different. Safety is our number one priority. "