Alpine’s Pierre Gasly says he did not feel safe when the FIA opted to get racing underway at Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix Sprint Race on Saturday.
The race start was pushed back by 30 minutes after torrential rain fell shortly before the planned start time and when it got underway there were five laps behind the Safety Car.
Gasly, who was sixth during the Safety Car laps, immediately pitted to take on Intermediate tyres and was shuffled through to third spot once everyone switched compounds.
Gasly preserved the position through the remainder of the shortened 11-lap race but conceded afterwards that he had not felt comfortable.
“You can only compare [the level of spray] to your position at the time.
“I was in sixth position and I’m pretty sure that when you’re first or second, it’s slightly different and when you’re at the back it’s probably worse.
“I don’t think my opinion is really… you got to ask all 20 drivers based on what they felt. But I could not see a thing.
“If Oscar or Max was in the middle of the straight, I would’ve been straight inside him. I just couldn’t even see 10, 20 metres ahead of me.
“Even when we were all warming up the tyres and stuff, you are just hoping for the best. I didn’t feel safe.
“When they restarted, I was really hoping that no guy gets off the track or collides and stops in the middle of the straight because we know obviously what has happened.
“It’s not really a question of conditions, the conditions were probably practical or raceable since the first lap.
“But the problem is the visibility and the spray at the moment is so huge out of these cars, the water just stays in the air.
“I was in P6 and I couldn’t see anything, I can only imagine how bad it was at the back of the pack.
“I wanted to box straight away for inters, but this just added another sort of incentive to box and just have visibility because just down the straight, don’t know what could happen.
“It’s a tricky call, you want to race but at the same time, I’m glad everything went safely today. But all you need is just one guy to be stopped in the straight and it can go wrong very quickly. It’s a tricky call.”
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