Here how #Vettel crashed today during Pirelli's wet tyres test at Fiorano. #F1 #Ferrari #P300@Passionea300 @radio5punto9 pic.twitter.com/yrhtoTkhQc
— Andrea Ettori (@AndreaEttori) February 9, 2017
Sebastian Vettel’s wet weather tyre test at Fiorano has been brought to a halt following a crash at the beginning of his afternoon runs.
Footage of the crash was caught on camera by a fan. The Ferrari driver went off and made contact with a barrier but is understood to be unhurt following the crash.
The team later confirmed it had abandoned its plans to run on Friday due to the damage. Antonio Giovinazzi had been due to take over driver duties on the final day of the test.
Vettel was using the team’s ‘mule’ car based on the SF15-T to simulate the increased downforce levels of this year’s cars. Pirelli is conducting further tests of its new, wider wet weather tyres following criticism of how they have performed in recent rain-hit events.
Pirelli has further tests of its new wet weather tyres planned to take place before the season begins next month.
2017 F1 season
- Sepang pays Haas compensation for Grosjean’s 2017 crash
- Williams revenues rose in 2017 after Bottas deal with Mercedes
- Australian Grand Prix cost government £56 million last year
- “Grand Prix Driver” takes you inside McLaren’s nightmare final year with Honda
- Undisputed champion: 10 titles name Hamilton top driver of 2017
Picture via Giovanni Nesti
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
9th February 2017, 15:22
Tyres working marvelously then, obviously
tonyyeb (@tonyyeb)
9th February 2017, 15:27
You can’t find the limit without going over it at least once.
Pete (@repete86)
9th February 2017, 15:51
Autosport is saying it was on a warm up lap. Track was cold, but still not a good sign.
tonyyeb (@tonyyeb)
9th February 2017, 16:04
Yeah 5 deg C, tough ask on the tyres. Can’t imagine there will be many places/times during the F1 season where track temp would even get close to being that low.
socksolid (@socksolid)
10th February 2017, 8:06
Going over the limit is not the same thing as going off the track.
Rick (@)
10th February 2017, 21:13
@socksolid Just as spilling coffee isn’t the same as spilling it all over your trousers, but the chance of that happening is quite significant considering you’re already spilling coffee.
Formula1 (@s2g-unit)
9th February 2017, 19:48
My thoughts exactly BUT we don’t any details. I’ll bet way more likely it’s the usual horribel Pirelli wet tyres & they have no excuse after all these years.
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
9th February 2017, 15:50
Good ole Seb.
Sumedh
9th February 2017, 16:24
I am sure Vettel is going to tell the world that Kvyat was testing an invisible car at Fiorano and drove into him causing the crash.
Will
9th February 2017, 21:43
Or Max was doing some vudú magic lol
LuluVettel
10th February 2017, 20:22
Even as a Vettel fan, I LOLED at this! :D
HK (@me4me)
9th February 2017, 16:35
This will look a bit silly for Vettel, but to be fair he isn’t a bad wet weather driver at all. Surely the circumstances under which they are testing the tyres is far from optimal.
Rick (@)
10th February 2017, 21:17
Are you seriously almost questioning the skills of a multiple world champion based on a 15 second video? It goes for all people here somehow judging Vettel all of a sudden. I’m not a fan of Vettel at all, never liked him for that matter, but it’s just a test, just trying stuff out and just crashing. Let it go, just enjoy the images of the first (somewhat) 2017 specced car.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
9th February 2017, 16:37
Short test, unfortunate but that’s what testing is for. I hope though we have enough time to as with the 2017 rules, try to make right a problem by making the challenge even harder.
Gabriel (@rethla)
9th February 2017, 20:58
No testing is not for crashing on the warmuplap.
BW
9th February 2017, 16:50
Oh boy. Let the Vettel jokes fly!!!
Todfod (@todfod)
9th February 2017, 18:58
More like let the Vettel jokes crash in to a wall on the warm up lap.
badger (@badger)
9th February 2017, 20:15
I genuinely laughed out loud at that comment :)
Will
9th February 2017, 21:46
Is Vettel doing a Maldonado?
John H (@john-h)
9th February 2017, 22:49
More a Grosjean
cjpdk (@cjpdk)
9th February 2017, 21:55
If he wanted to fly, he should’ve joined Red Bull :L
BW
9th February 2017, 22:43
Seb will never be good at NASCAR. He can’t turn left!!!
Rick Lopez (@viscountviktor)
9th February 2017, 16:51
Well that went well then…
Andy Mail (@amail)
9th February 2017, 17:25
“Good tyres”, mused Sebastien, casually lighting a cigarette, “but certainly not great tyres”.
Drg
10th February 2017, 8:02
:)
Willem Cecchi (@)
9th February 2017, 17:32
Smashing start to 2017.
Boomerang
9th February 2017, 18:56
There is more coming, don’t worry.
petebaldwin (@)
9th February 2017, 19:54
Look at where he’s gone off, you can see the light patch on the track which I assume is standing water. If it’s just swapped ends on him there, he’d be a passenger.
Strontium (@strontium)
9th February 2017, 21:03
@petebaldwin Indeed, and from the video that’s just been added it looks like it did just snap away from him, nothing he could do.
@keithcollantine any idea who might have the original video that we were watching on the other screen?
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
9th February 2017, 21:00
Ouch… In a one od Ferrari. He should have known, never drive Italian exotics in the rain.
Eode
9th February 2017, 21:54
Wonder if the wider tires will actually be more susceptible to hydroplaning? Rather than cutting through the standing water, they might float!
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
9th February 2017, 22:09
That’s exactly what Pirelli have been warning about:
https://www.racefans.net/2017/01/12/pirelli-concerned-over-wider-wet-weather-tyres/
BasCB (@bascb)
10th February 2017, 6:57
Indeed, and since Vettel went out on a wet patch in that corner, It does seem to be another well thought through step forward for F1 …
Joao (@johnmilk)
10th February 2017, 7:33
@eode @keithcollantine @bascb GPupdate are reporting that Pireli brought different prototypes to the test. Vettel managed 40 laps before the crash, maybe he was on a prototype that didn’t work as they hoped.
Other than that Ferrari told the media that the data gathered until that point was “good”
Trying to keep positive here, lets hope it was just a hiccup.
BasCB (@bascb)
10th February 2017, 7:42
Hm, he was on an outlap though, wasn’t he @johnmilk? So it’s possible that he had had a break between laps and they just changed the tyres.
So maybe he just got cought out by a puddle that had not been there. And the tyres might not have been quite up to temperature at that pont either. And they might off course have behaved somewhat different than Vettel had expected, etc.
Off course the most important thing is, that indeed they ARE testing the tyres. That increases the likelyhood that things like this won’t be happening during the season.
Joao (@johnmilk)
10th February 2017, 7:56
@bascb that seems to be the general idea, at least if we follow the reports from autosport. But even them are say “what was believed to be a warm-up-lap”.
Either way, both scenarios are possible, and neither of them are reason for concern, for the moment. It is in fact good to know that they took a few different solutions and are trying to figure out what works
It is a shame that video though, we can’t take practically anything from it, it just appears that the rear snapped on him and he was a passenger from that moment on
anon
10th February 2017, 18:40
@johnmilk, you also have to wonder what the handling characteristics of that car are like – there have been rumours that the test hack that Ferrari have put together is underdeveloped due to a lack of funding and hasn’t performed that well in testing, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the handling of the car isn’t particularly great given that it is reportedly a bit of a botched job.
Micheal (@shakengandulf)
10th February 2017, 14:51
To be fair.. it’s there job to make them not float.
JackySteeg (@jackysteeg)
9th February 2017, 22:14
Oh dear… At least Hembery has an excuse next time Vettel complains about his tyres.
“Well, we wanted to test them but SOMEBODY crashed the car…”
Blazz
10th February 2017, 15:21
Nice!
Rainer
9th February 2017, 23:58
Rainy Australia pls!
Todfod (@todfod)
10th February 2017, 5:36
I wonder how the guy shooting the video crashed his phone
darkSchneider
10th February 2017, 11:27
“damn, Maurizio, scusi , i forgot to put the steering wheel on.
It doesn’t turn well in that case ….”
tom
10th February 2017, 12:52
Guessing Benson is following this website closely… seen the same story posted a couple of hours ago on BBC.