Should 2014 Japanese Grand Prix Have Had Start Time Changed for Rain?
All week, the chatter coming out of the Suzuka paddock had been about the rain. Specifically, Typhoon Phanfone was making its way across the Pacific Ocean on a crash course with the Japanese archipelago.
In the aftermath of the Japanese Grand Prix, though, all the focus is on the health of Jules Bianchi—as it should be. The French driver suffered a horrific accident on Lap 42 when he crashed into a tractor that had been deployed to move Adrian Sutil's Sauber, which crashed a lap earlier.
The FIA issued a statement saying Bianchi "suffered a severe head injury" and had been taken to hospital for surgery. According to the BBC, he is now out of surgery and breathing on his own, although the specifics and extent of his injuries are not yet known.
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After the immediate concerns about Bianchi's health, some F1 personnel also questioned whether the race should have started when it did and whether it should have continued in the strong rain and gathering darkness.
Those are valid questions, with or without Bianchi's crash.
With the massive storm predicted to hit the southeastern Japanese coast on Sunday afternoon local time—around the time the Japanese Grand Prix was set to begin—there was worry that the race would have to be cancelled. There was also talk of moving the start time earlier on Sunday, in the hopes of avoiding the worst of the rain.
The race was bookended by two significant downpours. At the beginning, after two laps under the safety car, the race was red-flagged, and the drivers came into the pit lane to wait out the storm. As the rain slowed, the race started again, and everyone soon changed from extreme wet to intermediate tyres.
Near the end of the race, the rain picked up again, and some drivers switched back to the full wet tyres shortly before Sutil and Bianchi crashed.
Williams' Felipe Massa said, "I was already screaming on the radio five laps before that there was too much water on the track, but then they just took a little bit too long and it was dangerous," per ESPN F1.
Race winner Lewis Hamilton did not share Massa's view of the conditions, though. "They weren't really that bad. I've had much, much worse races in terms of aquaplaning and stuff," the Brit said, according to Sky Sports F1's James Galloway.
Sutil—who was standing trackside when Bianchi spun off—saw a different factor behind the crashes. According to Autosport's Ben Anderson, he said:
"It was quite difficult. In the end we got more rain and it was dark, so visibility was getting less and less and this corner was a tricky one the whole way through.
In the end, when it got dark, you couldn't see where the wet patches were and that is why I lost the car and it really surprised me.
"
Sunset in Suzuka was at 5:30 p.m. local time on Sunday, and Bianchi's crash occurred around 5 p.m. With the race only starting at 3 p.m. There was not much margin if the race was slowed by safety cars and restarts—which, of course, it was.
Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda—who suffered a terrible accident at the 1976 German Grand Prix in rainy conditions—said, "They could have started earlier. There is no question about it. It was foreseeable, we could have started the race at 1 p.m," per Autosport's Jonathan Noble.
Sutil agreed, saying, "It was clear it got more wet and it would have been quite easy to make the race earlier but it is not in my hands," according to Reuters' Abhishek Takle.
Last Friday, though, F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone (who was not in Japan for the race) told Forbes' Christian Sylt, "I’m not moving anything anywhere. Nothing is changing at the minute. If it rains the teams will race."
In the end, though, it was not Ecclestone's choice. F1 writer Adam Cooper tweeted:
On the BBC's broadcast, commentators Ben Edwards and David Coulthard said that one of the reasons the organisers were reluctant to move up the start time was that it would be impossible to get all the ticket holders to the circuit on time.
It is easy to second-guess the decision now, but even leaving aside the issue of safety, there were good reasons to move the start time forward.
There was a real possibility, even after the race started under a safety car at 3 p.m., that the drivers would never be able to actually race under a green flag. Ultimately, they were able to, but only because the rain slackened.
Had the rain continued, with no racing laps completed, organisers would have had to answer whether it was better to have an actual race with fewer spectators or no race with full grandstands.
If it is found that weather and darkness which could have been avoided played a role in Bianchi's injury, it will reflect very poorly on those involved in the decision.
In time, all the decisions leading up to the Frenchman's accident will be examined in great detail. For now, though, we can only hope that Bianchi recovers and that his injuries are not long-lasting.
No matter what, this serves as a good reminder that commercial interests can never be placed above the safety of the drivers and all those involved in a grand prix.
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