‘Sick from the incident’ — IndyCar drivers, team personnel slam series for late yellow in five-car pile-up

The IndyCar world is left reeling after a nasty late-race crash in Toronto saw five cars pile up together, one driver get airborne, and one lingering question as the checkered flag flew: Where was the yellow flag?

Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward lost control in the final stages of the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto race, and he was just a passenger as four more cars crashed into his Chevrolet. McLaren team boss Gavin Ward said he was “sick from the incident” — one that, thankfully, everyone walked away from.

Where was the yellow flag?

As one car piled into the next during IndyCar’s Toronto race, many fans, drivers, and team personnel found themselves asking, “Where was the yellow flag?”

With 13 laps remaining in the race, Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward lost control of his Chevrolet and crashed awkwardly into the Turn 1 wall. Marcus Ericsson was close behind and couldn’t avoid the Chevy; Ericsson drove into the rear of O’Ward, able to slow his car just enough to prevent a massive hit.

Unfortunately, the blows kept coming. Pietro Fittipaldi was next, driving over the nose of O’Ward’s car, gaining a few feet of air in the process.

Santino Ferrucci’s A. J. Foyt Chevrolet, though, caught the worst of it. His car effectively used O’Ward’s as a launch pad, jetting him into the air. The bottom of the car scraped across the catch fencing before bouncing back onto the track upside down.

Adding insult to injury was the fact that, moments later, O’Ward’s Arrow McLaren teammate Nolan Siegel plowed into the front of the stationary No. 6.

But where was the yellow flag?

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“I am so surprised that they did not call a yellow, as you are just calling for a massive shunt,” O’Ward said of his crash.

“There was a solid five seconds of waiting before telling everyone what was coming. I am glad that everybody that was involved in it is okay. I am sorry for the team.”

Further, Arrow McLaren team boss Gavin Ward had more criticism, which he shared with Motorsport.com .

“First and foremost, I was most concerned about, we know how serious it is when a car gets up in the catch fencing in IndyCar or any racing series,” Ward said.

“I’m just glad Santino is alright; that could have been hell of a lot worse.

“Sick from the incident. Pato thought the yellow was exceptionally late. Theo (Pourchaire, his team-mate), I haven’t seen his onboard, but we thought he did not see a yellow. We’ll review his video.

“Reviewing out No. 6 car video (Siegel), definitely no visible yellow as he entered the corner into Turn 1. So, I’m sure there’ll be disagreements out there, but in my opinion, the series needs to look at how they can do that better.”

IndyCar series personnel also spoke with RACER , telling journalist Marshall Pruett that they had activated the yellow after Ericsson crashed into O’Ward, and before Fittipaldi and Ferrucci made contact.

But that brings us back to Gavin Ward’s quote: The series may have activated a full-course yellow, but it wasn’t visible to the drivers barreling into Turn 1.

In IndyCar, any change to the flag status of the race comes with a change in color of both LED panels around the track, which can also be seen on a driver’s steering wheel.

However, multiple drivers raised concerns that they did not see any yellow flags, including both Pietro Fittipaldi and Santino Ferrucci. Fittipaldi told RACER that there was no indication he was approaching a crash, while Ferrucci added that even his spotters had failed to notice the crash.

The entire situation raises some serious concerns, both about flag activation time and about track visibility. Even if a FCY was activated immediately after Ericsson’s crash, there was still no guarantee that drivers would have known that on the narrow and demanding Toronto street circuit, where LED panels are hard to spot and even a FCY display on the steering wheel may take a millisecond too long to register.

With a monthlong break until the next race, IndyCar has promised to delve into every angle of the crash and review as many driver onboards as possible in order to understand exactly what happened and how it can be rectified in the future.

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