Sauber crew principal Jonathan Wheatley was stuffed with reward for the protection 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 making an attempt to overhaul Alex Albon into Flip 1 on the ultimate lap when he misplaced management turning to the within of the observe, hitting the concrete wall earlier than being launched into the barrier on the surface at excessive pace. The crash got here on slick tires in greasy situations and destroyed nearly all of Bortoleto’s automobile, however the Brazilian has since been cleared by the medical heart.
“I’ve spoken to the supervisor of the medical heart and for the second it seems like he’s completely high quality, no accidents in any respect,” Wheatley informed F1TV. “I believe I ought to say to start with, the unimaginable 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 high quality and get out, go to the medical heart and I’m positive he’ll be prepared for qualifying – simply undecided about his automobile.
Wheatley declined to take a position on the reason for the accident.
“Just a little 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 appeared 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 protection requirements in System 1 are so spectacular.”
Wheatley says it’s unclear if Sauber can get a automobile prepared for Bortoleto in time for qualifying, with simply three hours between the Dash ending and the following observe 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 automobile, there’s no time to fiddle with the one which we have now in the intervening time. Simply hold watching this house.
“I believe for him it’s a precedence to get again within the automobile and get on the market.”
With Nico Hulkenberg additionally crashing earlier within the Dash however in a position to rejoin the race after a purple flag, Wheatley believes Sauber can nonetheless achieve helpful insights regardless of the incidents.
“Nico ended up having to begin from the again of the grid – at the very least we received the automobile repaired and we received a bit extra data,” he stated. “He did some operating, dropped again slightly bit at one level, charged the battery, went for a lap – that provides him a bit extra information forward of qualifying.”
