Arrow McLaren team principal Gavin Ward felt "sick" over the horrific multi-car crash that briefly stopped Toronto's IndyCar race on Sunday.
Pato O'Ward had spun at Turn 1 on 73 of 85 in the shadow of the city's Princes' Gate, leaving the Arrow McLaren driver in a precarious position.
After the first few cars in the oncoming train passed without issue, Marcus Ericsson hit the wall to O'Ward's right, then the front of the Mexican's car was hit twice in quick succession; first by Pietro Fittipaldi before Santino Ferrucci was vaulted into the catch fence and came to rest upside down.
While all drivers were able to walk away from the carnage, both O’Ward and Ferrucci were critical of the lack of initial yellow flags.
Ward shared his frustrations with Autosport after the race and gave an update on the cars of O’Ward and rookie Nolan Siegel, who was also involved in the incident.
“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 a hell of a lot worse.
“I can confirm we have at least one write-off of a car.
“One might be repairable, but it’s done for the year, and we got a bruised-up driver to go with one that’s recovering from a broken thumb from earlier in the weekend [Alexander Rossi, who was replaced by Theo Pourchaire], so it’s been a pretty hard weekend overall here.
“[I'm] sick from the incident. Pato thought the yellow was exceptionally late.
“Theo, I haven’t seen his onboard, but we thought he did not see a yellow. We’ll review his video.
“Reviewing our #6 car video [Siegel], definitely no visible yellow as he entered the corner into Turn 1.
“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.”
There was a radio call from Ferrucci after the crash noting that he was OK, with the spotter apologising and mentioning he could not see that corner from his vantage point atop Hotel X next to those from the rest of the teams.
After consulting with several spotters on Sunday after the race, Autosport learned being blind to that corner was a common theme.
“It’s good to hear that corroborated with what our spotters shared with us, which is that they couldn’t see that area of the track,” Ward said, when the issue was put to him.
“I know that they would have liked a location where they could have spotted at the exit of the corner; that’s where you could’ve put a spotter.
“So, yeah, I think we should look at whether we can do a better job for that because it certainly played a role here.”
Refraining from going into details after noting that he expressed his thoughts with IndyCar race director Kyle Novak and series president Jay Frye, Ward explained: “I think it’s best to leave those conversations when you work together with the teams and the series to try and make things better, so I won’t really get into that detail.
“I’ll let them comment on it.”
However, Autosport understands that Ward was dismissed from the post-race conversation with Frye and Novak.
When Autosport approached IndyCar’s hauler seeking comment, Novak was leaving and did not provide one, though background was later given by an IndyCar representative, noting the waving local yellow condition – both the light panel and the cloth flag at the marshal’s post – in Turn 1 was active as Ericsson made contact with the outside wall and O’Ward.
At this point a full course caution was declared, which is understood to be prior to Fittipaldi, Ferrucci and others taking part in the incident. With only seconds to react between additional contact, reaction time by the local volunteer marshals and series personnel played a factor.
It is understood that IndyCar is continuing to process and review all data and observations of the incident.
