Poll: Singapore Grand Prix 2017, Singapore - Race 14/20

[Psycho Ned]

Even if Max had slammed his brakes on the millisecond Vettel started to strongly move left I doubt he could have got the car out of the way in time!

Watching it in slow mo makes it look like he had ages to react, you watch the on board and it was over in a flash. What Vettel and Max were doing would have been a fairly standard start if it wasn’t for Kimi actually having a good start for a change and not being in about 6th place eating a magnum

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Even if Max had slammed his brakes on the millisecond Vettel started to strongly move left I doubt he could have got the car out of the way in time!

And then would have had everyone run into him. It was an impossible situation.

 

[SoliD]

Would be interesting to see what people would be saying if Max had backed out enough and Vettel piled into Kimi coming through at a huge rate of knots.

 

[andicole0]

This.

Vettel and kimi tried the pincer attack, and it failed big time.

There was a comment in Teds Notebook (I think) that maybe this was a plan by Ferrari to get in front of Max. It back fired obviously and really shows the disdain Ferrari have for others. Why won't Ferrari allow Sky to interview them?
Andi.

 

[andicole0]

Would be interesting to see what people would be saying if Max had backed out enough and Vettel piled into Kimi coming through at a huge rate of knots.

LoL, yes they sort of did anyway
Andi.

 

[Steampunk]

Vettel once again tried to bully another driver off the track by driving his car at them. This time he comes off worse, takes out himself and three other cars, including his team mate. It just goes to show how Hamilton has matured into a great, fast driver who rarely makes mistakes, and Vettel has stayed a petulant child who keeps making the same mistakes years into his career.

If Vettel had given Max and Kimi room, it's highly likely he would have been able to get past them both (especially with Kimi giving him the place) and gain a win. Even if Vettel came second to Max, that would have been vastly preferable to a DNF. Vettel has probably thrown away his chance at the this years WDC with another example of his ignorant driving.

This was a big chance for Vettel to take back the championship lead on a track where his advantage to the Mercedes is particularly large, and he threw it away. They say that rain is a great leveller, that it takes away the advantages of the most powerful cars and show the skills of the drivers, and I think it's obvious what this race showed about the skills of the various drivers.

 

[koolpc]

Vetter can do nothing wrong! Pathetic

 

[deuse]

There was a comment in Teds Notebook (I think) that maybe this was a plan by Ferrari to get in front of Max. It back fired obviously and really shows the disdain Ferrari have for others. Why won't Ferrari allow Sky to interview them?
Andi.

I did wonder too.
You can tell it was Vettel's mistake as normally he would have a rant over the radio. But not this time...all he said was sorry

 

[andicole0]

I'm beginning to think we should have something like they do in some athletic races with lanes for a certain portion of the first lap. Maybe also add indicators to show you're changing lanes later on. What about a 'Halo' for the whole car so a bump doesn't matter quite so much.
Andi.

 

[Jono8]

I did wonder too.
You can tell it was Vettel's mistake as normally he would have a rant over the radio. But not this time...all he said was sorry

Indeed. The lack of protestation from him is very telling. I think he knows he goofed and that he could have avoided the DNF.

Personally I think the stewards made the right call. It would have been pointless to penalise anyone over it and was pretty much a racing incident. Even in 'racing incidents' though, it is rarely just 50/50 and I think Vettel is most to blame for the incident due to his guess work on assuming no one was the other side of Max. In those conditions, and with it being impossible to see properly behind you ( because of the spray), a lunge across the track like that was not a smart thing to do.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Part of me watched the lights out and thought Vettel had got away with it. Apart from a cooling leak he almost got away without any damage.

I'm actually gutted for Alonso though. Watching the replays you can see him make amazing progress and simply get punted off

 

[Steampunk]

I'm beginning to think we should have something like they do in some athletic races with lanes for a certain portion of the first lap. Maybe also add indicators to show you're changing lanes later on. What about a 'Halo' for the whole car so a bump doesn't matter quite so much.
Andi.

You just need to punish drivers consistently for dangerous driving. It's only because Vettel's in a top team with a chance at the title that he's getting away with this kind of driving. If it had been someone new or young, they would have been instantly blaming inexperience and how we're letting too many young drivers into F1. There would have been punishment. What is Vettel's excuse?

 

[andicole0]

I thought that back in the day when MS at al used to do this it was outlawed.
Andi.

 

[deuse]

" I had an average start and then I moved slightly to the left trying to defend my position from Max"

Pardon vettel! http://formula1.ferrari.com/en/singapore-grand-prix-2017-sebastian-comments-about-the-race/

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

FIA unable to act, as it will "damage the show". However, it is a terrible example to set again

 

[PinkFloyd]

The slow mo of the start makes it so easy to avoid an accident, but then you watch it full speed and it's just something else. In slow motion it looks like Max had huge amounts of time to pull back when he realised he was going to run out of road, but from the full speed onboard Kimi just flies past on the left and there was no way Max was going to be able to avoid it.
I'd say it's a racing incident, no direct blame for anyone, just a bit clumsy. The Ferrari's clearly didn't know where each other were until it was too late. Feel really sorry for Alonso getting caught up in the aftermath, stunning start from him and would have been great to see what he could have done.

 

[Mr Jack]

Perhaps they should consider penalty points all round in cases like this?

 

[this_is_gav]

Vettel didn't do anything wrong as such - he was just warding off Verstappen following a relatively poor start, which we see all the time. It only became an issue as, unbeknown to Vettel, Raikkonen had made a stunning start and they were pinching Verstappen. Take any of the 3 out of the equation and there would be no problem. There's no way any of them were getting penalised for that.

Perhaps they need a NASCAR spotter for the starts - "3 wide, you're on the top!".

There was a comment in Teds Notebook (I think) that maybe this was a plan by Ferrari to get in front of Max. It back fired obviously and really shows the disdain Ferrari have for others. Why won't Ferrari allow Sky to interview them?
Andi.

But you have no control over how well the opposition starts, or am I missing something?

They didn't let Channel 4 interview anyone either (and that was before qualifying), except for the mandatory pen ones.

On that note I thought C4s coverage was particularly poor this weekend. I guess they're starting to wind down their production costs with the Sky exclusivity next year. Sky haven't been great for a couple of years now (to the point that I preferred C4), but they certainly trumped C4 this weekend.

Neither were on the ball enough to point out that Vettel spun on his own fluids though - Brundle only picked up on it during one of the later safety car periods.

 

[MooMoo444]

I think starts are too dangerous. We should just have safety car starts as standard, even when dry. Maybe even limit the cars to 100mph.

 

[andicole0]

Brundle did see the fluid loss but wasn't sure until you later.
Ch 4 sadly have the wrong presenters but it is a bit like new Top Gear vs the Grand Tour ☺ on terms of people.
Andi.