Carlos Sainz of Ferrari and Esteban Ocon of Alpine, who both crashed violently into a wall during Miami Grand Prix practise on Saturday, accused Formula One’s regulatory body of not listening to their safety concerns.
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Both drivers claimed that a Tecpro barrier should have been installed at turn 14 to cushion the collision with the concrete.
“I’m sorry to be critical but I told the FIA yesterday that my crash in second gear shouldn’t feel that hard, but today my neck was a bit in pain,” Sky Sports quoted Spaniard Sainz, who qualified on the front row.
“I told them ‘Let’s put Tecpro there’ because it’s a very hard concrete wall. Esteban went to crash and I’m pretty sure he felt it too,” he added.
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Sainz stated that he raised the issue during Friday’s drivers’ briefing, but that nothing had changed.
Ocon’s incident cracked the chassis of his car, preventing him from competing in qualifying.
The Frenchman said the hit was 51G and severe, but he was permitted to race.
“The impact has been so hard in comparison to what it should have been. We’ve discussed it with Carlos yesterday, with the race directors, to say that we should probably put a Tecpro barrier there and it hasn’t been listened (to),” Ocon added.
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“That is not acceptable, and the FIA should push harder for our safety.”
The governing authority made no immediate comment.
Jenson Button, Britain’s 2009 world champion and now a Sky Sports pundit believes Tecpro would have softened the damage, but only by a long stretch.
“After that incident, and now two, I’m sure they are going to put it in,” he said.