La F1 does not stop and moves to the next circuit, that of Suzuka, another Asian stop. The teams are already transferring their cars to the circuit, while the FIA continued to work on a minor incident happened during the last grand prix. Accident which led to the penalty of a driver to be discounted during the Japanese weekend.
GP Suzuka, 5 second penalty for Latifi
It rains in the wet for Williams. The Anglo-Saxon stable was forced to retire both cars on the street circuit of Singapore, Albon for his mistake in turn 6 which took him straight into the barriers, while Latifi for an incident with Guanyu Zhou. The FIA, in the post-race, analyzed this contact arriving to assign to the Canadian pilot 5 positions on the starting grid at Suzuki. For her part, Latifi has totally admitted error justifying himself, however, of not having seen Alfa Romeo arrive maybe because of the reduced size of these mirrors.
“From the previous corner I looked in the mirrors to see where Zhou was. NI didnt see it was there, so I took my normal approach for the race line into the next corner. I don't know if it was in a blind spot on the car that the mirror can't locate. Unfortunately it was there and in hindsight I should have left more space, but I can only go by what I see in the mirrors. The aim was to see the checkered flag and learn from the experience, being my first race here, but the crash caused damage to the suspension which forced us to retire the car.".
Albon's words after his retirement
Latifi's great sense of apprehension is certainly not lacking in the words of Alex Albon. The Thai was forced to stop the car due to an impact against the curve barriers 6, in the second half from that attack by appendicitis had in Monza that had forced him to stay at home.
“It's a bit frustrating and it was difficult tonight. The situation is confusing and there is nothing different from the previous lap, however I got stuck on the front left in the wet which made it difficult to predict the brakes. Although there was no problem and in the end this is pilot error, the brakes are very fiddly in the wet and it's hard to get them into the right window. We knew that in Singapore we probably wouldn't be fighting for points, so even if it's difficult, we can look to Japan and get back to fighting.”
ARTICLE BY FRANCESCO ORLANDO
