Eurocup-3 responded to criticism on Thursday over the handling of their rain-affected Spa race. We asked drivers what they thought of race control’s decisions at the time.
By Juan Arroyo
If you’re reading this, you surely know the scene already: a car aquaplaning up Eau Rouge and colliding with another stranded car a few seconds later, with the latter’s driver still inside.
Three minutes before the end of Eurocup-3’s first scheduled race at Spa, the safety car peeled into the pits. Rain had been intense throughout the weekend, but it seemed to have abated as drivers went for their last turns around the circuit that day.
But only a lap after the restart, precipitation had intensified again to the point where drivers were aquaplaning on various parts of the circuit and being blinded by the spray of cars ahead.
Nick Gilkes followed Theodor Jensen into Eau Rouge on the final lap, and subsequently lost control of his car before reaching the uphill section. Gilkes shared an onboard video afterwards on Instagram, in which he appeared to have little visibility heading into the corner.
Luciano Morano, who was farther down the field, spun similarly at a higher point in the corner less than a minute later. He bounced off of the tyre barriers and was stranded a few metres to the left of Turn 4, the right-hander in the Eau Rouge-Raidillon section that leads into the Kemmel Straight.
Double-yellow flags were waved upon Morano’s crash, which – according to one driver Feeder Series spoke to after the weekend – were clearly visible despite the heavy rain. A red flag was then shown less than thirty seconds after this incident.
However, a replay on the broadcast after the race was suspended showed Gaspard Le Gallais losing control of his car through Eau Rouge – eleven seconds after red flags were initially shown, according to Eurocup-3 – and colliding with Morano’s car while the French driver was still inside.
Gilkes, Morano and Le Gallais were unharmed. The incidents nonetheless caused a stir in the paddock – and on a weekend where conversations revolved around Dilano Van’t Hoff’s fatal accident in similar circumstances.
The series was criticised on social media, with ex-FRECA drivers Santiago Ramos and Alessandro Giusti expressing discontent over a lack of a lesson learned from Van’t Hoff’s accident in July of last year. IMSA driver Renger van der Zande also commented under a video posted on social media of Le Gallais’ crash.
“Spa has proven to be such a risky track in the rain, so sending young drivers to go racing in those conditions is unacceptable.”
On Thursday, Eurocup-3 released a statement addressing the “unfair allegations made in media and on social media regarding what happened at the start of the 2024 season at Spa-Francorchamps.” It read:
“Race 1 of the 2024 Eurocup-3 season held at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on May 19th started behind the Safety Car (SC) due to adverse cold and rainy weather conditions, ensuring at least 3 complete laps for cars’ spray to allow visibility for other drivers and to increase tyre temperatures before removing the SC and safely restarting the race. This process also involves radio feedback from both the Safety Car driver and teams through their drivers.
“Once the SC returned to the pit lane, the race resumes under normal conditions with a wet track but very light rain. Minutes later, the rain becomes heavier, especially in sector 1 of the circuit, where car 64 from the Drivex team goes off-track and collides with tyre barriers and tec-pro on the outside of Turn 2.
“Due to this incident, a yellow flag is waved between Turn 2 and Turn 3, and the driver’s condition is checked with track officials and via radio. Shortly after, under the same yellow flag conditions mentioned, car number 10 from Palou Motorsport collides with the tire barrier a few meters ahead (at Turn 3), with the car ending up off-track (in the run-off area) but with some debris on the track.
“At this point, double yellow flags are shown at Turn 2 and Turn 3, and as the rain worsens, becoming very heavy in sector 1 with both cars off-track needing quick recovery from the incident area, the Race Direction deploys the red flag to end the race under those conditions. All cars are instructed to proceed to their pits at reduced speeds and with maximum safety.
“Eleven seconds after the red flag is shown, car 20 goes off-track at Turn 3, colliding with car 10 sideways (which was already stopped from its earlier incident), causing serious damage to both vehicles. The medical team then conducts the driver’s extraction tasks from the vehicles.
“To conclude, it’s important to note that teams were continuously informed about track conditions, which were right to compete until the red flag was displayed and all the procedures were followed correctly at all times.
“The Race Director and assistant held a meeting with drivers to discuss improvements for future situations, and both the promoter, the Spanish Federation, and the teams themselves are investing significant time and money in installing a dashboard marshalling system to have real-time electronic flags on their cars’ steering wheels soon.”
The drivers’ point of view
Feeder Series spoke to several drivers prior to the release of Eurocup-3’s statement on Thursday.
“It all happened very quickly,” Nick Gilkes wrote.
“I don’t really know if I aquaplaned or why I spun at all, in truth, as I was right behind the car in front and couldn’t see anything. As soon as I turned in I lost it and once I knew it was unrecoverable I just closed my eyes and waited for what I knew was going to be a big impact.
“I am super thankful that everyone who went off is all good and now from my side it’s just about moving forward to the Red Bull Ring.”
Luciano Morano says he told his engineer prior to the accident that conditions were “dangerous with the possibility of aquaplaning” but didn’t ask for the red flag to be shown. Regardless, he thinks the stewards should have suspended the race before the final lap.
“The rain came down much harder during the safety car and the restart wasn’t necessary,” Morano wrote.
“The water on the last lap was ridiculous. Despite not showing on the live stream, several drivers lost control but simply never hit the barrier and continued on. Me, Gaspard and Nick were just the unlucky ones. But for all of us, it wasn’t driver mistake but simply aquaplaning.”
Morano was the unluckiest of the three, helpless in the face of Le Gallais’ car coming towards him. He described the impact as, “as hard as I’ve ever felt.”
“I was scared for my life, and it was so violent I barely remember the extent of what I felt. Luckily I had heard the spinning of his car and braced for the impact just before he hit me. But I was almost [so] in shock after it that I couldn’t move much until a marshal arrived and helped me. However, I’m sure that if I had attempted to get out [of] my car after my first crash he would’ve killed me upon colliding with me.”
Garrett Berry – Morano’s teammate at Palou Motorsport – didn’t crash, but he felt the aquaplaning just as much as the rest of the field on the final lap.
“I feel like it was the lap after the safety car went in is when maybe it should have been looked at, because people were going off and making tons of mistakes. We were gliding on top of the circuit,” Berry said.
Morano noted that Palou as a team disagreed with the decision to restart the race with just three minutes remaining.
“The whole weekend people were thinking about Dilano Van’t Hoff and didn’t want the same situation to reoccur. And for some reason, [Eurocup-3] hadn’t learned from last year’s incident and almost did the exact same thing,” the Frenchman ended.
Despite frustration over a commonly perceived late red flag, there’s also a moderate acceptance in the paddock of race control’s decisions. Berry in particular had mixed feelings about the end of the race.
“I feel being a race director is quite hard. Sure, they have the most valid data, but at the end of the day, ‘race director is God,’ I like to say. They kind of control the situations. Yes, they could have thrown the red flag earlier, maybe we couldn’t have done the race restart. But it’s really hard for them to make that decision at the time.”
Javier Sagrera, the eventual race winner, says it was a matter of “bad luck” for the race directors.
“They really did a good job all the way through and the thing for them is that when they restarted the race, it was actually drying up, the sun was out, the conditions were getting better, and just when they restarted the race, the rain started pouring in sector one. They couldn’t actually predict, you know, that it was going to rain just when they let the safety car out,” the MP Motorsport driver said.
Sagrera and the rest of MP went to speak to the race control after the chequered flag. It was a productive conversation according to the Spanish driver, after which he said the stewards appreciated the fact that they had come to give feedback.
“It was very positive for everyone. [Race control] agreed with everything we said and I don’t think they could have done much better because it was so unlucky. I definitely think it was worthwhile going and giving our opinions.”
“Everything can be improved for the future and if there’s something that needs to be improved, after that meeting, they have something more to consider.”
Feeder Series understands that not all drivers and teams spoke to the race directors on that day. Nevertheless, the championship’s statement mentioned that a meeting took place – presumably at a later date – in which competitors discussed how to better respond to similar situations in the future.
The teams are also investing “significant time and money” to have flags displayed on drivers’ wheel dashes in real time, according to the statement.
There is still a debate – that is not likely to end any time soon – on whether race control was unlucky or irresponsible to hold that final lap. For now, the series has done all it can: evaluate and take action accordingly.
If it has learned its lesson in that it’s always better to play the cautious side at Spa, then there is nothing left to do except move on.
Header photo credit: Niels Broekema / Dutch Photo Agency
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