From my point of view there were three errors.
#1 For safety, Malucelli should have pulled his non-running race car off the ashphalt. But there are reasons why a driver wouldn't. One is he thinks he can get it going again and doesn't want to get crap on the tires pulling it off track. The other is to force a caution flag. But I don't think they would have thrown a full course caution. Both are risky.
#2 The officials should have thrown a local caution flag when the car slowed to almost zero & radioed to the rest of the officiating staff the situation. Flagmen & corner workers tend to assess situations, and if there is no immediate danger, give the driver time to get the car off track, so as not to interfere with the racing. That was not the case here, as cars were passing the slowed car. So the corner worker didn't act appropriately.
#3 Memo's spotter ... if he could see the slowing car ... should have said, "Stay right. Slow car on left" as they approached. But spotting is way harder than it looks or sounds. His view may have been blocked or he could have been distracted by looking at another concerning situation. The challenge is there can be more than one at a time.
IMHO, the complex realities of racing and human error plays a role much of the time, as it did here. In the end, they're both going to be ok, so it's best to learn from it & move on. I suspect the corner worker, main officials, other corner workers, Malucelli, other drivers and all spotters took something from it.
.
__________________
Ron Sutton Race Technology
|