Sauber crew principal Jonathan Wheatley was stuffed with reward for the security requirements in System 1 after Gabriel Bortoleto walked away from an enormous crash on the finish of the Dash on the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Bortoleto was trying to overhaul Alex Albon into Flip 1 on the ultimate lap when he misplaced management turning to the within of the monitor, hitting the concrete wall earlier than being launched into the barrier on the skin at excessive velocity. The crash got here on slick tires in greasy situations and destroyed nearly all of Bortoleto’s automotive, however the Brazilian has since been cleared by the medical middle.
“I’ve spoken to the supervisor of the medical middle and for the second it appears like he’s completely effective, no accidents in any respect,” Wheatley instructed F1TV. “I feel I ought to say to begin with, the unbelievable work the FIA have completed when it comes to security, working with the groups, and also you’ve simply seen it right this moment. A crash of that magnitude, for the motive force to be effective and get out, go to the medical middle and I’m positive he’ll be prepared for qualifying – simply undecided about his automotive.
Wheatley declined to take a position on the reason for the accident.
“Somewhat bit quickly [to understand the cause],” he stated. “Clearly we noticed it occur after which waited for a replay, however your first thought is to verify the motive force’s OK. That’s what I targeted on after the session. I’m positive we’ll take a look at it – it regarded like one of many greatest crashes I’ve seen for some time frankly, and I’m simply happy that he was OK, and like I say the security requirements in System 1 are so spectacular.”
Wheatley says it’s unclear if Sauber can get a automotive prepared for Bortoleto in time for qualifying, with simply three hours between the Dash ending and the subsequent monitor session at Interlagos.
“I don’t even know, we haven’t established that but,” he stated. “Clearly we’re simply going to construct a brand new automotive, there’s no time to fiddle with the one which we’ve in the meanwhile. Simply preserve watching this area.
“I feel for him it’s a precedence to get again within the automotive and get on the market.”
With Nico Hulkenberg additionally crashing earlier within the Dash however in a position to rejoin the race after a pink flag, Wheatley believes Sauber can nonetheless achieve helpful insights regardless of the incidents.
“Nico ended up having to start out from the again of the grid – at the least we obtained the automotive repaired and we obtained a bit extra data,” he stated. “He did some working, dropped again a bit bit at one level, charged the battery, went for a lap – that provides him a bit extra data forward of qualifying.”
