F1 stewards explain bizarre Japanese GP crash after driver's 'virtual mirror' failed

The stewards have explained the unusual failure which contributed to a crash during Friday practice at the Japanese Grand Prix. It happened towards the end of FP1 at Suzuka when Alex Albon, who was approaching the end of an out lap and preparing for a final run, came across Sergio Perez on track.

The Cadillac was moving much more slowly as the Mexican driver was in the middle of a race simulation. Albon attempted to move up the inside on the first corner of the turns 16-17 chicane but ended up tangling with Perez, who clearly had not seen or been warned about the fast-approaching Williams and turned into the corner, the resulting collision causing damage to both cars.

It was one of several incidents investigated on a busy day for the stewards at Suzuka on Friday, though they did eventually decide not to penalise either driver. Explaining why in the official FIA decision document, they said Perez had reported that the 'virtual mirror' on board his Cadillac had failed.

It is a system which has been developed after many years of collisions, near-misses and impeding incidents caused by a race engineer failing to warn their driver in time that a faster car is approaching them on track, in either practice or qualifying scenarios. The system should automatically warn the driver in the cockpit but, on this occasion, it failed to let Perez know about Albon's whereabouts.

The stewards wrote: "[Perez] explained that he was on a race-run lap and was about to commence another. He had seen [Albon] some distance behind when he had exited turn 14. [Albon] was on an out lap and gained significantly on [Perez] through turn 15 and on the approach to turn 16.

"[Albon] moved to overtake [Perez] on the inside at turn 16 and a collision occurred. [Perez] said that he did not see [Albon] his virtual mirror was not working and he had not received any warning from his team of [Albon's] approach. This was confirmed by his team radio. The team explained that they had assumed that [Albon] would hold position behind [Perez] and had not noticed the extent to which [Albon] had gained on [Perez] and for that reason did not warn [him].

"[Albon] said that he believed from the wide line taken by [Perez] at the entry to Turn 16 that [Perez] was letting him through. Both drivers were surprised by the closing speeds. The collision was therefore the result of a misunderstanding contributed to by a lack of communication by the team to [Perez].

"Both drivers accepted that neither of them was wholly or predominantly to blame for it. The stewards, therefore, determined to take no further action."

Albon finished the day eighth on the timesheets, while Perez's best time put him 20th. Both are pointless after the first two rounds of the season, with newcomers Cadillac still settling in and Williams battling to overcome their car's weight issues after a disappointing winter of development.