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Gasly acknowledges: 'I didn't feel safe'
- Toby McLuskie
The Belgian sprint race was not run under the most ideal conditions. After starting 35 minutes later due to rain, visibility was very poor at Spa-Francorchamps. Pierre Gasly did not feel entirely comfortable in his Alpine, he frankly admitted after his podium finish.
Anthoine Hubert, Gasly's compatriot and close friend, crashed at Spa-Francorchamps in 2019 after crashing in Formula 2. Racing in conditions like Saturday's has been under a magnifying glass ever since, as no one wants a repeat of a disaster of that magnitude. Moreover, Dutchman Dilano van 't Hoff died last month after a racing accident on a wet Spa.
"I didn't feel safe," Gasly says. Especially the restart after the safety car caused by Fernando Alonso worried him a bit. All the drivers were close behind at that point and all went full throttle. "I was really hoping no guy gets off the track or collides and get stopped in the middle of the straight because we know obviously what's happened"
Spray hinders visibility
Like Verstappen, the Alpine driver felt the track conditions were certainly sufficient for immediate racing and fewer formations laps. "But the problem is the visibility and the spray at the moment is so huge out of this car and the water just stays in the air and I was in P6, I couldn't see anything so I can only imagine how bad it was at the back of the pack and I wanted to box already straight away for inters but this just added another sort of incentive to box and just have visibility because down the straight just don't know what could happen," Gasly explained.
Such conditions are difficult for everyone according to Gasly, for the race organisers and for the drivers. "I'm glad everything went safely today but all you need is just one guy to be stopped at the wrong place in the straight and it can go wrong very quickly so it's a tricky call."