How Vettel Shot Himself In The Foot

“YOUR GUESS IS AS GOOD AS MINE,” WAS LEWIS HAMILTON’S DOWNBEAT response, a few hours after qualifying fifth, when asked how he intended to limit the damage Sebastian Vettel would inflict upon him in the following evening’s Singapore Grand Prix.

- Edd Straw

But there is a flip side to the damage-limitation coin, which Ferrari discovered to its cost in the race. In a few moments, the combination of Vettel’s so-so start in wet conditions, team-mate Kimi Raikkonen’s spectacularly good one and Max Verstappen’s decent launch set the top three on a collision course. Ferrari inflicted enormous damage, but it did so upon itself – and with devastating consequences.

Regardless of the verdict of the stewards, who deemed no driver was “wholly or predominantly to blame for the incident”, Vettel only had himself to blame for a missed opportunity that, if it doesn’t cost him the world championship, has certainly reduced the chance of him winning it. This was Ferrari’s worst-case scenario, a nadir from which it may not recover in 2017.

It took around six seconds for Ferrari’s day of destiny to turn into one of disaster. Vettel was a little slow off the line from pole, then appeared to suffer a dab of wheel spin in the second phase of the start. Vettel was vulnerable, and he knew it. Around three and a half seconds after the lights went out, he glanced to his left and made his call. He invoked the Michael Schumacher start chop, a technique he has deployed well in the past, to cover Verstappen. Bad decision.

In taking this course of action you are often asking the driver alongside you on the straight to accommodate you. And it was impossible for Verstappen to extend this courtesy to Vettel. This was partly down to Raikkonen struggling on a track where he normally goes well and being well off his team-mate’s qualifying pace, leaving him fourth on the grid behind the Red Bulls instead of alongside Vettel on the front row.