Gasly Calls For FIA Talks After Spa Rain Delay

Pierre Gasly says drivers will open talks with the FIA to improve decision-making around wet-weather racing, after the governing body delayed the Spa sprint amid criticism and confusion.

The FIA justified its conservative approach by citing past tragedies at Spa and poor visibility with the current generation of ground-effect cars. But Gasly believes clearer protocols and more collaborative discussion are needed going forward.

“We’ll work on that,” said the Alpine driver. “I’m sure we’re going to talk about it in the Drivers’ Briefing and next race they’ll do even better and we’ll find the right adjustment. It’s a fine line. We want to race in the wet – it’s always exciting – but not when you can’t see and you crash on the Kemmel straight and have to explain that to another family.”

Gasly said the current situation is unsustainable. “We want to see overtaking and skill in the rain, not a race decided on whether you can see two metres ahead. At Silverstone, a driver hit another car purely from lack of visibility. That’s not racing.”

Alex Albon echoed the frustration, particularly over how drivers are being perceived. “We look weak,” he said.

“It’s not that the tyres are bad – it’s that we can’t see anything. At 250 kilometres per hour, you can’t see more than 20 metres. Only we know what’s happening in the car, but it makes us look like we’re complaining instead of racing.”

Some believe the root of the problem lies in the cars and tyres themselves. Gasly agreed: “We know the spray is definitely not great with these cars. They’ve done testing with things like wheel covers, but we still need to find a way to reduce the spray so we can actually use wet tyres again.”

Fernando Alonso, drawing on decades of experience, believes circuit design also plays a role. “Some tracks produce a lot of spray, others have zero. If we implement that type of asphalt everywhere, we’ll have zero spray.”

Carlos Sainz, co-director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, said Spa was always going to be handled cautiously. “A lot has happened at this track,” he noted. “The FIA announced on Thursday they would take a conservative approach. Perhaps that should have been communicated better to the fans.”