Austrian Grand Prix marshals respond to criticism from Sainz

The marshals working at the Red Bull Ring during the Austrian Grand Prix responded to critical comments from Carlos Sainz, who withdrew from the race after his Ferrari’s power plant failed and the car caught fire.

After the incident, the Spanish driver was dissatisfied with the slowness of the Austrian marshals, who were in no rush to help even though the car was already on fire, and we talked about it.

Representatives of the Austrian circuit services, which are responsible for racing safety, issued a statement stressing that the marshals acted according to prescribed instructions during the Grand Prix.

“Following the horrific Jules Bianchi incident in 2014, the FIA ​​rules regarding rider evacuation and interference with what happens on the track have been tightened significantly,” the statement said. – Any intervention is only allowed after instructions from the competition management.

On the one hand, this increases the safety of riders and marshals, but on the other hand, the downside is that it now takes a bit more time. In this case, several adverse conditions coincided.

The place where Sainz stopped the car was not visible from the Marshal’s post. The marshals were radioed to get to the car with fire extinguishers and when they assessed the situation, they decided to call the fire brigade.

Such a decision must be made in a few seconds, and in the course of the subsequent analysis of events it was recognized that it was absolutely correct. It should be recalled that in the situation with the Roman Grosjean incident (in Bahrain in 2020), hand fire extinguishers were also completely inadequate.

Thus, the fire extinguisher was turned off, and the car was left behind, therefore unsuccessful shots appeared on the TV screens, showing that the Marshal is running away.

The second problem was that Sainz was understandably nervous in the car and released the brake pedal too early. In such cases, a shoe has to be placed under the steering wheel of a moving car, which made the situation even more difficult.

The fire brigade arrived in less than 30 seconds and extinguished the rapidly spreading fire. After the incident in Grosjean it became clear how important it is to have sufficient extinguishing capacity to protect the rider as much as possible.

At that time, another rescue vehicle had already arrived and the third was on its way. Even if Sainz couldn’t leave the car alone, we would take all necessary measures to save him…

Of course, the images of the incident on TV or videotaped by cameras on the track indicate that some areas need improvement. We will discuss this privately with our people and also use this incident as an example to improve the quality of our work. But in general, the marshals acted correctly in that exceptional situation…

We are a team of motorsport enthusiasts who sacrifice their free time in training and activities to ensure maximum safety on the track.”