Leclerc: 'FIA should not feel pressure to start F1 race in bad weather'
F1 News
- Toby McLuskie
While all Formula 1 drivers agree that safety is the top priority, Charles Leclerc goes a step further. The Ferrari driver believes the FIA should be able to make the decision to cancel the race if conditions are not deemed safe enough.
In the aftermath of the fatal accident of Dutch driver Dilano van 't Hoff, questions were again raised about the safety of the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit, especially considering it followed only a few years after the tragic accident of Formula 2 driver Anthoine Hubert.
Adjustments to Spa-Francorchamps
Leclerc believes a number of changes could be made to make the circuit safer, but the layout can remain unchanged as far as he is concerned. "First of all, the walls on the straight after Eau Rouge, we should have a bit more space on the left and right," explained the Ferrari driver.
"If you lose control of the car, the way it is done at the moment you are bouncing on the walls and you have a very high chance of finding yourself in the way. I think this is probably a change we should consider in the future."
Another concern Leclerc sees in poor visibility in rainy conditions. "Visibility is really difficult to put into words … apart from saying we are seeing nothing – we are not exaggerating when we say we don’t see anything, we really don’t see anything when it’s raining. This is a really big problem for Formula 1, for motorsport in general," the Monegasque continued.
Leclerc: 'FIA should consider not starting race'
That problem, however, is not so easy to solve, according to Leclerc. "Any single-seaters, we have quite a bit of downforce and there is quite a lot of spray and then this causes quite a lot of incidents because we cannot react to what is in front. Easy to say that, much more difficult to find a solution, but I know that the FIA is on it and trying to do the best on that."
Another issue that the FIA should consider, according to the Ferrari driver, is whether a race should be started at all when conditions are so bad. "When is it safe to start a race? This is another topic for the FIA to look closely, especially on a weekend like this where it seems we will have quite a lot of rain throughout, to not feel the pressure of starting a race just because we didn’t have any running," Leclerc said.