Louis Delétraz has heavily criticised the safety car restarts at the Baku City Circuit after the Swiss racer was caught up in an incident that ended with him retiring from Saturday’s Feature race.
The Swiss racer, driving for Carlin in 2019 in what is his third full campaign in FIA Formula 2, found himself out of the race with a damaged car after contact with Campos Racing’s Dorian Boccolacci, although Delétraz believes the problems were not with the Frenchman but with those in front weaving, accelerating and breaking in preparation for the restart.
“The race was going alright, it was more about being safe because Baku is Baku, we all know it,” said Delétraz to Motorsport.com. “We were actually eighth at this moment, I think, and quite in good shape because coming back on the cars ahead, and then those safety car restarts were ridiculous, honestly.
“They just accelerate, brake, accelerate, brake and crash together. We are just behind it, we cannot avoid. I think the four cars in front just spread out and then I was left with nowhere to go.
“The DAMS [Sergio Sette Camara] spun then everyone behind brakes and I saw [Jordan] King, then everyone spreads around him and when you come behind, what can you do? Nothing. There is just no more room anywhere.”
Delétraz feels the rules need to be changed to ensure drivers do not unnecessarily weave, which he feels was the catalyst to the Baku restart issues, while he also believes something needs to be done to prevent dangerous accelerating and braking, with the Swiss racer believing that once the acceleration has begun, that should be it.
“It shouldn’t be allowed to weave that much because the only reason they contact is because they are weaving and they touch wheels,” added Delétraz. “It shouldn’t be allowed to do this.
“Safety car restart, go, and once you are on throttle you are on throttle. You can’t brake and accelerate, I think we’ve seen a few years ago and it is exactly the same again.”
