Hirakawa pit error hits Haas mechanic in Austria FP1

Ryo Hirakawa’s first Haas outing of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend was overshadowed by a pitlane mistake that sent Esteban Ocon’s car into a mechanic at the Red Bull Ring, with the team confirming the crew member was unhurt after what it described as “very slight contact.”

Hirakawa was driving in Ocon’s place during FP1 when he went long into the Haas pit box and made contact with the front-left mechanic. The crew member was knocked down but quickly got back to their feet. No broadcast footage of the incident was shown during the session.

Explaining what happened, Hirakawa said he was caught out by the Haas controls on his first run in the car. “I’m very new to the car, you know,” he said. “I thought I pressed the neutral button, but I pressed the wrong button, so the car went to anti-stall.” He added: “The car just couldn’t stop. So I just went to the guy after that, and he was fine, so that’s the most important thing.”

The incident came in a session that featured six rookies or stand-in drivers, with Hirakawa joined by Jak Crawford at Aston Martin, Luke Browning at Williams, Dino Beganovic at Ferrari, Paul Aron at Audi and Ayumu Iwasa at Racing Bulls.

Hirakawa completed 23 laps and ended the session 19th with a best time of 1:10.493 before handing the car back, but the result was secondary to the pit-stop error.

Sky F1 analyst Anthony Davidson said the moment underlined the risks when drivers are still learning the steering wheel systems of an unfamiliar Formula 1 car. He called for “certain protocols” to be considered in such situations and suggested extra protection for pit crews, saying: “Like every mechanic should be wearing helmets, for example.”

Davidson warned that “a simple misjudgement and a wrong press of a button can have pretty damaging consequences,” a point that carried extra weight even with the Haas mechanic able to walk away unharmed.