F3 drivers praise early use of Safety Car in rain-hit race after Van ‘T Hoff crash

Formula 3 drivers praised the decision to send the Safety Car out when rain began to fall during today’s race at Silverstone.

The Safety Car was deployed after rain began to fall on the eighth lap of the race. No incidents had occured at that point, though all drivers bar Gregoire Saucy had started the race on slicks.

Not all drivers used the opportunity to pit for wet weather tyres. Only one driver among the top 10 runners, Luke Browning, replaced his slicks, though many outside the points positions chose to.

It comes after last weekend’s incident where Van ’T Hoff was killed in a high-speed crash at Spa-Francorchamps during a very wet Formula Regional round.

The race was won by Franco Colapinto, who drives for the same MP Motorsport team the late Van ‘T Hoff belonged to. He believes another crash was likely to happen if the Safety Car wasn’t used immediately.

“I think the right decision was to call a safety car or a red flag,” said Colapinto, who dedicated his victory to Van ’T Hoff.

“The race was quite risky with staying on slicks with the amount of water that was falling on the track. So I think it was the right thing to do.

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“We are working with the stewards and [race] director just for him to understand a little bit more what we need and how the conditions are on the car, because it’s not the same as what you see on the TV.

“It’s also really difficult for them to make the right decision, and with the things that have been happening last weekend of course we are putting more emphasis on that.

“I think the race being under a Safety Car, even if there was no incident at that moment, it was for sure to prevent some other accident, because with the amount of water falling down on track something was going to happen for sure.”

Those thoughts were echoed by Gabriel Bortoleto, who finished second. “I agree that a safety car was the right decision,” said Bortoleto.

“And congratulations to the stewards on putting the safety car straight away from the beginning of the rain, because it could have been much worse if someone spun in the middle of the straight and that can happen like what happened last week.

“So, I think the Safety Car was even better than a red flag because there was not much spray on-track so we could see everything and there was no danger at all.”

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Rookie Christian Mansell, who finished third, added his praise for how the stewards handled the situation following’s last weekend’s crash.

“The reason why I think they brought the safety car out is to just neutralise the threat of any possibility of spinning,” said Mansell. “I think a red flag would have been a bit overkill just because there wasn’t that much spray. It was obviously wet and we’re obviously on slicks, that is dangerous in itself.

“But I think it was a good call by the stewards to just put the Safety Car [out]. Obviously in the back of our minds is what happened last week and they’ve obviously made a step so I’m proud to see that.”

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