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Safety car must be deployed when recovery vehicles used: Perez

SOCHI — Formula 1 should deploy the safety car whenever a tractor is used to retrieve a car from the track, Mexican Sergio Perez said yesterday as drivers reflected on Jules Bianchi’s horrific crash in Japan last weekend.

SOCHI — Formula 1 should deploy the safety car whenever a tractor is used to retrieve a car from the track, Mexican Sergio Perez said yesterday as drivers reflected on Jules Bianchi’s horrific crash in Japan last weekend.

Bianchi, 25, has been in hospital since Sunday after his Marussia car aquaplaned off in rain and poor visibility at Suzuka and collided into a tractor removing a crashed Sauber. The Frenchman suffered a traumatic brain injury and remains in critical but stable condition.

“In the future, when there is a tractor picking up a car, we need a safety car no matter the conditions because there is always a risk,” Force India driver Perez told reporters at the new Russian Grand Prix Circuit.

“You expose the marshals and a lot of people, so we need a safety car if the tractor is on track. You could have people run out of brakes, so many factors you would never expect, and if the tractor is there, it’s a big problem. You don’t want to expose anyone like that. We have to take care of the marshals.”

F1’s governing body, the International Automobile Federation (FIA), has opened an enquiry into the accident, with a number of questions to be addressed. How and when tractors are deployed to remove crashed cars have been concerns in F1 for years and have come under renewed scrutiny.

“For the good of him and for the good of his family, we need to really move forward in terms of safety after what happened to Jules,” said Perez of Bianchi, who was Force India reserve in 2012.

“Hopefully in the future, you will never see an accident like this in the whole of Formula 1 ... We cannot have this,” he added.

Perez said it would be tough to focus on the racing this weekend in Sochi, which is hosting Russia’s first Grand Prix, as the 16th round of the 19-race championship.

Earlier, Williams’ deputy team principal Claire Williams had urged F1 to consider introducing closed cockpits to provide greater protection for drivers’ skulls, the Associated Press reported. AGENCIES

Russian Grand Prix on TV:

Today:

Practice Sessions 1 and 2 — SingTel mioTV Ch116, StarHub TV Ch210, 1.55pm and 5.55pm

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