Sebastian Vettel slates Belgian GP red-flag delay

Belgian Grand Prix

Vettel slates Belgian GP red-flag delay

Vettel was calling for qualifying to be halted ahead of Norris' shunt

Sam Hall

Saturday 28 August 2021 18:21

Sebastian Vettel believes FIA race director Michael Masi "is not proud of what happened" after Lando Norris crashed heavily amid calls for qualifying to be red-flagged.

McLaren driver Norris has been transferred to hospital for a "precautionary x-ray" after crashing heavily at Eau Rouge-Raidillon in torrential rain during Q3.

Following Norris on his out lap, Vettel had made repeated calls to the race director to red flag qualifying saying "there is too much water".

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After the crash, Vettel erupted on the team radio and said, "What the f**k did I say? What did I say? Unnecessary! Is he okay?"

Speaking after qualifying his Aston Martin fifth, Vettel told Sky Sports F1: “I think Michael is not proud of what happened.

"It is always easy to play Captain Hindsight but I think that we need to find a way that we listen more to the information that we have.

“Inside the garage, it is very limited because it’s like looking out of the window but then three kilometres that way I have no idea what is going on.

“So when I went down to Eau Rouge and came up the hill, it was a lot of water and [I was] calling for a red flag but I think the truth is that the session should not have started at all.

“I think the people that were standing up on the Kemmel Straight, they were in the middle of the rain and we should have maybe listened to those or asked those.

"There are plenty of things that we could have done better and I think it is better to be safe one time too many than one time too little."

Stating he is unsure there was anything Norris could have done to avoid the crash, Vettel explained the decision to red flag a session should not be left to the drivers.

“The trouble is we are in control and of course, you can always say ‘Well if you feel unsafe, box'," he explained.

"It’s sort of a weird situation because everybody is in the same position.

“You don’t want to get kicked out, you want to progress, so that decision shouldn’t be really entirely up to us.

"We delayed the session at the beginning when there was less water so I don’t entirely understand why we just didn’t start the session.

“But the main thing is it doesn’t happen again.”