- Red Bull
Vettel: No magic safety solution
Grand Prix Drivers Association (GPDA) directors Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button have warned there is no "golden answer" to safety in Formula One after the Japanese Grand Prix.
The issue is back on the agenda after Jules Bianchi suffered severe brain trauma in a crash at the Japanese Grand Prix, an issue which dominated Thursday's media sessions in the Sochi paddock. Vettel, who became a GPDA director in 2010, thinks F1 has to be cautious about making any emotional decisions on safety before a proper investigation has been conducted.
"I think it's very difficult to give you the golden answer," Vettel said when asked about safety. "There were a lot of circumstances which led to that type of accident but there's always something you can learn. For now we need to try to digest what happened and then make the right conclusions. I think it would be wrong only a couple of days after, with all the events going on and all the things that have happened since Sunday, to come out with something that hasn't been thought through."
In the aftermath of the crash, Bernie Ecclestone asked for the FIA to conduct an investigation into what happened, while there is likely to be continued focus on the role of recovery vehicles and the possibility of closed cockpits in F1. Button thinks this is a solution but believes F1 would have to consider the impact this would have on the aesthetics of the sport.
"There are positives obviously in terms of a safety point of view. But this is F1, it has been open cockpit since the start of time so it's a very big change for the sport to make. We work as hard as we can to help the GPDA, to help the safety of the drivers, as the FIA does as well. Obviously [safety] will be talked about a lot over the coming weeks to help our sport."
Vettel added: "I've got sort of mixed feelings [about closed cockpits]. For F1 cars since the beginning of F1, and open-wheel racing, [open cockpits] is one of the things that is very special."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
