The FIA will try to avoid using red flags to take care of all track fires during the Japanese Grand Prix, following a number of incidents throughout the weekend.
Friday afternoon, FP2 was interrupted twice with fires starting on the grass next to the Suzuka circuit, after two days with strong winds but no rain. These followed a period of time which left the majority of the grass around the particularly dry track, and the second fire spread particularly quickly due to the wind.
Although the grass is shorter in a number of areas on Friday evening, there were two other fires on Saturday which had an impact on the two sessions.
The fires were caused by sparks from the cars that turn on the grass, and Gabriel Bortoleto plunged two wheels of the track approaching 130R in FP3, with a fire appearing in the same place a few seconds later.
After another interruption during qualification – Q2 stopped for a number of minutes – the FIA explained its planned approach if there were repeated incidents during the race. The preferred approach will be to take care of the problem under Virtual Safety Car (VSC) if the field is still enough grouped, otherwise a safety car will be used to bring the field closer and allow the staff to take care of the flames.
These approaches are only in case of small incidents. If a fire spreads too quickly, a red flag will be used as a last resort, with a control of the race wishing to completely avoid neutralization of the race if possible.
The idea of intentionally burning the grass was envisaged but rejected according to the weather forecasts which predicts the rain at a given time on Sunday morning, potentially near the start of the race. Consequently, the officials hope that humidity will prevent other epidemics, while the staff of the circuits worked late at night to cut even shorter grass and eliminate excess.