Joel Eriksson feels the FIA will need to act about the way it deals with Full Course Yellows (FCY) procedures after the Swede was taken out of the Macau Grand Prix on Sunday, just after the FCY was withdrawn.
Eriksson was leading the race on Sunday and had high hopes of ending his 2017 with a victory, but the Motopark with VEB driver found himself with a damaged front wing that lodged itself under his front wheel thanks to contact with Callum Ilott, which also gave the SJM Theodore Racing with Prema driver a puncture.
But Eriksson, who felt Ilott was to blame for the incident – something the stewards in Macau agreed with post-race – feels restarting the race following the FCY on the long straight heading towards Lisboa was not clever on the part of the FIA, and the Swede feels this needs addressing before next year’s event.
“Both Callum and the FIA have to learn something out of this – it’s unbelievable to release a full-course yellow on the straight in Macau, and they need to learn something for next year,” said Eriksson on Autosport.
“But overall we showed we were one of the best in the field and we did everything we could.”
Ilott agreed with Eriksson that the lack of radio communication in that particular part of the track led to the issues, and ultimately he was not impressed with the timing of the FCY being withdrawn.
“Because of that full-course yellow, which was ‘greatly’ placed, there was no radio communication down that end of the track,” said Ilott to Autosport.
