New videos show fans’ views of Singapore start crash which claimed both Ferraris

2017 Singapore Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

The dramatic crash on the first lap of the Singapore Grand Prix was captured on video by several fans at the track.

Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen were eliminated in the first-lap carnage along with Red Bull driver Max Verstappen.

Here’s how several fans saw the crash:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R6rGqoIvsA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNEVOzvu3r4

2017 Singapore Grand Prix

    Browse all Singapore Grand Prix articles

    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

    Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

    56 comments on “New videos show fans’ views of Singapore start crash which claimed both Ferraris”

    1. Sky’s excitement at the wet race got replaced by their expected elation of a perfect storm. I never expected anything but a retirement for Vettel, the best would have been 3rd but that only a 25% chance really. The championship is well and truly over.

      1. Well, at least Vettel did it himself then, so that’s fair – throwing in your own glasses is a legitimate way to lose it.

    2. It’s weird to me, how many people sitting that close to the cars watch it through a screen in their hands! I appreciate the footage we get to see, but it’s so strange!!!

      1. On the other hand, I finally thankful for the advancement of phone camera tech. 5 years ago fans video will just like super bad VCD quality, but now we can get full HD 60 fps minimum and high end phones can even capture somewhat limited 2K / 4K.

      2. One of the reasons I feel so little compelled to go watch a live race. As an average height person, I would not see a thing through that sea of smartphones…

        1. @gsagostinho should will believe you that is your main reason not to attend live F1 races & not the costs?

          1. He said “one of the reasons”, not really any of your business anyway

          2. @Jake What makes you think that there aren’t people out there who can afford the costs of attending a GP but prefer not to? During my whole life I have lived in cities that either hosted a GP or were around the corner of one that hosted. Also, tickets are often pricey but nothing that I could not afford if I really wanted to; e.g. general admission for the Hungarian GP was 90 EUR for both Saturday and Sunday this year, and Budapest has always been just a couple of hours by train from my place. My main reason has always been the lack of enjoyment of having my view blocked by a wall of smartphones. Same reason why I think music gigs are absolutely not enjoyable nowadays.

    3. 3rd vide shows, fast the cars are.

      1. That’s why I say FOM has gone for the wrong directing and wrong camera angles. You see footage from the 90’s the, camera focus on a corner and gently follows the cars, because the camera isn’t zoomed in you can see the whole car in relation to the corner and thus speed! The camera isn’t excessively zoomed in like today, that trend promotes jerkyness, and you can’t see the logos they want you to see either.

        1. Well put @peartree, @royalz – I get how they got here, but they should rethink what they want to show, the cars in full clarity, or fast paced racing (I know what most fans would want).

    4. Cmon Charlie, this kid is asking for a wrist slap since long… Yeah RIC is getting the podiums because of “luck”, sure.

      1. Vestappen has been scrappy this year but that accident was all Vettel’s fault..He was trying to squeeze Vestappen when he already had Kimi beside him there’s only one way that could possibly end..

        1. Seb was one car lenght ahead,he close door to Crashstappen,and yet that kid continue with pedal on,and steer right into Kimmi.

          1. Please explainwhere he had to go with a car on his left, on his right and 19 right behind him?

            1. It’s called THE BRAKE PEDAL!
              Or backing out of the throttle at the very least.
              Wow, Verstappen was in an accident on the first lap – THERE’S A SHOCKER!

            2. You’ll see the flood of Ferrari fans moaning because they don’t want to admit their favourite driver might have taken himself out of the championship so want someone else to blame..

            3. @nick101 by that logic, vettel shouldn’t have steered left, Kimi shouldn’t have overtaken max and max should have stayed behind Vettel. That way all three would have been fine. But Vettel defended his position, didn’t see kimi charge in. Max was in a sandwhich. This is what racing starts are. You can’t see everybody, have an unusual small amount of decision time and cars everywhere. I can’t blame anyone here, everybody did what they should have done.

            4. Max just had to lift to stay clear. There is no excuse for him to steer left into kimi as both were alongside. I know drivers have to take it to the limit as it is their job but max tries to hard to salvage a situation not is his favor. This self entitled brat just didn’t want to get out of the throttle. Ask dani ric said, max is a sore loser.

        2. Rubbish.
          Vettel was a car ahead and also about 3/4 of a car away from Max when the collision happend. He didn’t even hit Max, but got hit by a spinning Kimi.

          Here you can clearly see that Max is steering towards Kimi, look at the angle of MAX car that is turning towards Kimi.

          Kimi clearly is innocent in this all.

          1. Yes he was turning in because Vettel was turning into him and was expecting Vettel to stop and give him room but he kept coming over…Even Vettel and Kimi haven’t blamed him which I think says more than a few keyboard warrior Ferrari fans on the internet.

            1. Vettel was 3/4 of car with away when the crash occurred more than than enough space to evade any crash.
              I know that people that ware orange glasses can not see that.

            2. Yet every person that has seen it that isn’t biased including F1 drivers have said it was Vettel being overly aggressive..Please just stop, this happened before the corner on a straight so the whole “he was this amount alongside” means absolutely nothing. Max had another car fully alongside him and got squeezed into him it was either hit Kimi or hit Vettel at that point, braking in that position could be just as likely to cause an accident with their big wide rear tyres being that close and not knowing fully if there’s a car behind him as he’s focusing on the two cars either side..they were on a straight not at a corner so please stop with the whole “he should have given the position because he was along side” that whole argument does not even apply..

        3. You got brainwashed by sky. How is Seb culpable? Kimi goes for the overtake, Vettel is covering the inside. Perfect storm. I don’t think Max had to avoid contact on all costs, it would’ve been wise. If it’s anyone’s fault it’s Kimi’s who touched Max who then touched Seb. I think Ferrari got psyched out by the Max threat.

          1. Kimi is driving straight on. Take a look here you can clearly see Max driving into Kimi.

            But with the start, and rain i think it is a racing incident.

            1. indeed @marcelh, that video clearly shows that Raikkonen indeed is just having a good start, got the inside, Verstappen gave him space, but then had to move back towards him because Vettel was coming. Let’s call it a racing incident, but if anyone is to blame I’d say Vettel is.

          2. @peartree
            You got brainwashed by sky. – +1
            How is Seb culpable? – +1
            Kimi goes for the overtake, Vettel is covering the inside. Perfect storm. – +1
            I don’t think Max had to avoid contact on all costs, it would’ve been wise. – +1
            I think Ferrari got psyched out by the Max threat. – +1
            Pretty much summed it up quite nicely IMO. Only thing is I’d say that “If it’s anyone’s fault” it’s Kimi’s and Max’. Still rate it as a racing incident though.
            On a side note, what the heck was Alo talkin about being in front of Ham at the first corner??

    5. Rubbish.
      Vettel was a car ahead and also about 3/4 of a car away from Max when the collision happend. He didn’t even hit Max, but got hit by a spinning Kimi.

      Here you can clearly see that Max is steering towards Kimi, look at the angle of MAX car that is turning towards Kimi.

      Kimi clearly is innocent in this all.

      1. Backtrack and you can see that Verstappen starts by heading right slightly, then sees that Vettel is veering left towards him (changing angle much more than any other driver) and starts turning left slightly. Raikkonen just ploughs on ahead (he could have edged slightly left too) and then just before they contact starts going right too. At that point there’s no track left for Verstappen. Look very carefully at the film you posted. Even if Verstappen hadn’t touched Raikkonen, Vettel would have collided with him a fraction of a second later. Vettel was driving across track as though nobody else was there. The more I see it, the clearer it becomes a Vettel-caused incident.

        1. At last: I was wondering if I was the only person who noticed Kimi turned right just before making contact with VER. Watch super slow mo before they make contact Kimi is driving towards VER. I still call this a racing accident though. Vettel did nothing different to a normal start really. VER moved towards Kimi when squeezed by VET, but straightened up as he gets close to Kimi, a split second later kimi turns ever so slightly towards VER, maybe thinking he had enough momentum to blow past. His rear right wheel catches VER’s rear left and everything kicks off from there. Bottom line is I think a slight miss judgement by Kimi is at fault in terms of first contact, although all three contributed to the scenario. Although super slow-mo can help understand chain of events, at full speed no-one can really be held 100% accountable. Just sorry we were robbed of a potentially good race.

    6. Max had a better start than vettel, clearly to see that vettel pushed both to the right.

      1. Don’t pretend to be anything but Dutch.

    7. mad max deserves a race ban!

      1. VETTEL deserves a race ban!

          1. I agree Vettel needs a race ban

            1. Vettel didn’t need to cover so aggressively.
              No blame on Max this time.

    8. Hard to see exactly what VER could’ve done differently. He was basically sandwiched, even though VET had the lead he was defending his position into turn 1 and at the same time Rai had a better start than VER. VER moved in RAI’s direction, slightly, to avoid VET, clipped RAI slightly in the process but ultimately both the Ferrari’s came together of their own accord.

      Racing incident for me.

    9. I dislike how people add music to videos like this, the crowd noise and reaction is what makes them unique to the official F1 footage.

    10. One of the things which I hadn’t seen mentioned (though I think di Resta just mentioned something like it): Vettel squeezing Max, even if the three hadn’t collided and could have gone on, gave Hamilton the room he needed to go 2nd, just behind Vettel, into the third corner – so even then, it clearly was the wrong move, attempting to win the race from Max but losing the WDC fight to Hamilton.

      1. Not sure about that scenario coming into play considering Kimi’s start and Max being right in there too. DiR is covering for Sky, a Ham-propaganda-channel.

    11. For me Vettel solely to blame for the turn 1 incident, aggressively and needlessly chopping across the field and taking out 3 other cars including your teammate is not the actions of a world championship drive. Vettel bottled the championship today.

    12. OK, I go back to my 1st take: VET the only 1 at fault. RAI and VER no fault at all. VET simply pushed too much and the fact that he didn’t knew about RAI, it’s his fault too in the end. He knew he didn’t have a good start, he knew the track is wide, he knew some other drivers might have a really great start (see HAM and ALO)… should have anticipated all of these and did not cut the track so much. All he did was to push VER into RAI.

    13. A perfect storm ? if I lay any fault here, I put it on Vettel (and I dislike Verstappen’s aggressive blocking very much). VER and RAI couldn’t do much differently. All 3 of these guys have been getting in collisions the past few years especially the Ferrari duo since VET went there, not the first time. Sadly Alonso in P3 innocently taken out. Podium may not have been there but top 5 for sure

      1. Great reasoning over here. If it wasn’t for those 3 guys colliding, Alo would’ve never gotten into 3rd, as briefly as it was.

    14. CRASHSTAPEN ! enough said

    15. I am amazed some are suggesting it is Max’s fault.
      Vettel just kept going left, even after Kimi and Max had their first contact, Vettel was still steering to the left, hence he and Kimi collided. I am of the opinion, Vettel would have struck kimi irrespective of Max slowing down or not.
      Very irresponsible of Vettel especially in the wet.

    16. Nice corner cut, Checo!

      From P12 to P4 and no investigation.

    17. As per my comment above…with the aid of super slow mo and overhead footage: Kimi was not entirely free of blame – he turned right just before making contact with VER. I still call this a racing incident though. Vettel did nothing different to a normal start really. VER moved towards Kimi when squeezed by VET, but straightened up as he gets too close, a split second later Kimi turns ever so slightly towards VER, maybe thinking he had enough momentum to blow past. His rear right wheel catches VER’s rear left and everything kicks off from there. Bottom line is I think a slight miss judgement by Kimi is at fault in terms of first contact, although all three contributed to the scenario. Super slow-mo and frame by frame analysis can help understand chain of events, but at full speed no-one can really be held 100% accountable. Just sorry we were robbed of a potentially good race.

    18. With Kimi’s rocket start along the left of Max, if contact was NOT made with Vettel, I think he would not have been able to make the wet 1st corner on the inside. A major crash would have been delayed but clearly his fault. I like Kimi, but how could he expect to make the corner carrying so much speed on the inside?

    19. Watching it from the head on angle in the last video, Raikonnen had a big part to play in this: he was trying squeeze inside Max when there clearly wasn’t any room at all. I don’t what he though was going to happen. It looked to me that Vettel was taking a risk trying to cut off Verstappen but if Kimi wasn’t there inside him, Max would probably have been able to back off cleanly which he said he was trying to do.

    20. OK, I just watched the last head on shot video again. If you just block out Kimi and watch it as if he wasn’t there, it’s clear that Vettel would have been just able to get in front of Verstappen cleanly. It’s Kimi’s mad charge up the inside, when there clearly wasn’t going to be enough room and where Vetel couldn’t see him coming, that cause the crash. Realoy bad move on Kimi’s part.

    21. P.S. Verstappen said post-race that he was trying to back off when he saw Vettel move over to block the inside line.

    22. Kenny, glad you also found Kimi to be the real cause of the crash. He was so possessed with getting by Max to 2nd place, that he couldn’t think about turn 1 that was only ~ 3-4 secs further down the wet track from impact. He’s done this before on starts and passes with fast charges down the inside with no chance of making the corner at that speed. Then after the crash, our announcers (Diffey, Hobbs and Matchett) that I respect, don’t make the call.

    23. De Cesaris and Maldonado had earned the crash nickname, while Verstappen…hasn’t yet.
      Still a racing incident to this day.

    Comments are closed.