21 September 2023 , 13:26
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Pierre Gasly admitted he feared for his life at Suzuka last year when poor race conditions saw him narrowly miss a tractor on the side of the road, evoking emotions over the loss of childhood friend Jules Bianchi, who died of injuries as a result of a collision with the rear of a tractor crane tending to the removal of Adrian Sutil's Sauber in 2014.
The Frenchman's nearly two-meter shave with the tractor sparked outrage, with Bianchi's father slamming: "No respect for the life of the driver, no respect for Jules’ memory, incredible."
Fellow drivers Lando Norris and Sebastian Vettel also came out with brutal, pointed statements, reaffirming that there is no room for such mistakes in F1 going forward. Nearly a year later, Williams lead driver Alex Albon says lessons have been learned.
September is a wet month in Suzuka with an average of 195 mm of rain and Friday's practice session could see clouds and showers. However, there is a good chance rain will miss Suzuka when it's time for lights out- on Sunday. But if it doesn't, the climate from last year isn't expected to replicate.
"I think they have [learned their lesson]," Albon exclusively told Mirror Sport. "There's been a definite understanding from race control and the FIA about how tricky it is. Truthfully, the main issue that started was because only we, the drivers, could experience how bad it actually was.
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"People watching through a TV, including the FIA and the race directors - as that's what they see as well - saw quite a safe track when in actual reality, when you're in the mist and you can't see anything around you, it's a different story."
The former Red Bull driver, who has spearheaded Williams' charge up the Constructors Standings to seventh with 21 points, says communication following Gasly's near-miss last year in Japan has been positive, and that teams are still working on a solution to reduce spray.
Gasly had a close call with a recovery vehicle with visibility at Suzuka very poor (Sky Sports F1)"There's been really good communication since Japan [2022] about the spray and the general visibility in these new generations of cars," Albon continued.
"I think there's still work to be done and we're still going through tests throughout the year to try and improve visibility.
"So, you can see all the actions that are taking place are positive. We haven't found a real solution yet but in the meantime, we're erring on the side of caution as we don't want situations like last year to happen again."