Kobayashi crashes Ferrari during Moscow demo run

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Kamui Kobayashi crashed a Ferrari during a demonstration run in Moscow but was able to resume duties as the team had a spare car on had.

The ex-Sauber driver lost control of his 2009-specification F60 in wet conditions at the Moscow City Racing event.

“The track was very slippery and there was a marked bump at that point, which is why I hit the barrier,” said Kobayashi.

“A shame, but I am pleased the team let me out again after a few minutes.”

“I was very impressed by the city,” Kobayashi added. “I come from a big place like Tokyo, but you don’t feel the weight of history there as you do in Moscow.”

“Also, it was nice to see so much enthusiasm for Formula One: you can tell there is a lot of passion and a desire to see real racing cars. I really hope that next year, Russia can stage its first ever Grand Prix.”

Ferrari joined McLaren, Lotus, Caterham and Marussia for the fifth running of the event in the Russian Capital.

Last year Pastor Maldonado crashed during a demonstration run in Venezuela.

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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...

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21 comments on “Kobayashi crashes Ferrari during Moscow demo run”

  1. This is bound to happen to someone sometime, conditions were crap too. But how do you live down the embarrassment!?

  2. Kobay-bashy living up to his name ;)

    1. That’s better than my Krashbashy nickname.

  3. Lucky for Ferrari that he crashed that F60 piece of crap so I doubt the mechanics were too annoyed with him.

  4. Ferrari like a No.2 driver that’s a barrier magnet so why not swap Felipe Crasha for Kamui Kobay-Bashy. Lets face it he would have to try very hard to do a worse job

  5. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
    21st July 2013, 21:52

    Makes last year’s Maldonado-madness look rather tame and trivial. I suppose Kobayashi and Maldonado only wrote off an F60 and a FW33, which were F1 cars inasmuch as Orlando Bloom is an actor.

  6. Happens all the time in Russia just look at all the Youtube videos

  7. F60 was the most difficult Ferrari to drive, slow and cumbersome. Ask Luca Badoer and Fizzi.
    Kobayashi might be excused. Shame though, because it was beautiful to look at. Undrivable but lovely.
    A Liz Hurley of a car you might say.

    1. jimscreechy (@)
      22nd July 2013, 11:46

      ah Jesus, too funny

  8. Ah man, what a shame. Still have him over Maldonado…

  9. Wow, that spectator was in the perfect spot to capture the crash. Not a lot Kamui could have done tbh though, there was absolutely no way anyone could have avoided the barrier. Sure he could have gone slower, but the drivers are there to put a show on not trundle around at pedestrian speed.

    I still rate Kobayashi over atleast 70% of the drivers currently in F1, so I’m still hoping he’ll be back next year. It’s not the same without him.

    1. Fernando Cruz
      24th July 2013, 18:31

      Kobayashi is not that good, Bruno Senna is better. Better whenever they have more similar conditions (in GP2 and now in the WEC). He would be better still in F1 had he started in 2009 with Honda or Brawn, as he would have deserved – he had better results in junior series than a guy like Damon Hill. The point is that Senna had never a fair chance in F1 while Kobayashi still was lucky enough to do 3 full seasons with a competitive car. Senna had only one and even that one losing almost half of free practice time and after losing too much ground with a poor development (2009, 2010 and even 2011) due to the financial crisis.

  10. time to retire Kobi.

  11. Well I guess that’s the end of him driving another Ferrari F1 car. I don’t care he crashed the F60, which was awful in many ways. You don’t crash a Ferrari mate! I know it is wet, but that’s why there are full wet tyres on you’re care man.

    Still would pick him over Maldonado every single day of the year.

    1. Hope I don’t jinx Kobayashi, but he took part in Le Mans 24hr and they got the car to the finish albeit a bit banged up :D, and it was the worst mix of conditions for racing. I believe he completed over 100 laps of a circuit that is 3 or 4 times larger than most F1 tracks. He has completed all his Endurance races so far and has done a great job so far.

      It sucks that he’s crashed a demo car, but I don’t think it makes any real difference on his chances at Ferrari. They were probably very little chance anyway. I do believe he deserves a shot at a team like Lotus though.

  12. I remember Marc Gené also crashing a Ferrari during a demo run, it wasn’t as bad as this one though.

  13. wet, with tram tracks, and a bump in the road… these events are just silly lol.
    It does show that f1 cars would be entirely useless as road cars though.

  14. Was expecting dash-cam footage. Disappoint.

  15. he saw putin on his mirrors

  16. Was that the gear box on fire if so that’s the first time I’ve seen that happen.

  17. WOW did you see how well those Russian safety barriers worked!! We could all save mucho millions of $$$ by using sheets of plastic. Thanks, RnR

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