08/05/2008
NEWS STORY
Jarno Trulli has hit out at those fellow drivers who have not joined the Grand Prix Drivers' Association,(GPDA), the F1 drivers' 'trade union', accusing them of appearing to have no interest in safety.
"I think they just don't care about safety," the Italian told Reuters ahead of this weekend's Turkish GP.
"Every driver should be a member because we are talking about our safety," he continued. "You want to contribute. Everyone should have his own opinion, we are listening to everybody and trying to follow the best for all of us, not for one of us."
Pitpass has long argued that while the GPDA is extremely vociferous about some issues, it remains curiously silent over others, such as the incident during qualifying at Sepang when Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen, having finished their final flying laps, returned to the pits at a significantly reduced speed on the racing line, a move which hampered, and endangered, both Nick Heidfeld and Fernando Alonso. Because of the incident the qualifying rules were subsequently changed but no thanks to the GPDA.
High profile non members of the GPDA include Kimi Raikkonen, Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton, who said earlier this year that he didn't have time to join the union, a comment that didn't go down well with Trulli.
"Everybody is very busy and we are not asking anyone to work 100 percent for the GPDA," said the Italian, "we are only asking them to be part of it.
"If you don't want to be part of the GPDA, it just means that you don't want to be part of the safety improvement," he added."
Trulli's comments come two weeks after Heikki Kovalainen's high-speed accident at Barcelona.