Malaysian Grand Prix: Singapore carnage swept under the carpet to leave fans scratching their heads in Sepang

Any ill-feeling left over from Sebastian Vettel's, Kimi Raikkonen's and Max Verstappen's accident hid itself well, but is this a good look for a sport trying to promote itself?

Sebastian Vettel brushed off his Singapore crash with Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen (Getty)

Fans frequently complain about the quality of on-track confrontations in Formula 1, the lack of wheel-to-wheel battles. But ironically, in light of the manner in which the three-way collision between title contender Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and Red Bull nonpareil Max Verstappen enlivened the recent Singapore Grand Prix, it was a damp squib when they all met up again in the Malaysian paddock this afternoon. Such is the way of a sport more adept at sanitising than a bag of face wipes.

Vettel, who normally at least makes an effort to be interesting, kicked things off when asked how he assessed the situation in hindsight. Generally, his fast move left to protect his line into the first corner after he had made a mediocre start, was judged to have triggered the initial contact between Verstappen, in the middle, and Raikkonen making a great start to the Dutchman’s left. Rightly it was adjudged a racing incident by the stewards, but many in the paddock believed Vettel, so often fiercely outspoken whenever he feels wronged, to bear the most blame.

“I don’t think there’s much assessment necessary,” he countered. “Obviously on Sunday all three of us were unhappy, but you move on.”

“It happened, you know,” Verstappen observed wisely. “You can’t change it any more - it was just a very unfortunate moment. But there’s nothing you can do about it - we just come here and we try again.”

“Not really anything,” the habitually taciturn Raikkonen offered. “Obviously moved on since Sunday, since the weekend.”

And you wonder why fans are still uncertain about the sport, despite its greater openness since the Liberty Media takeover…

It doesn’t have to resemble a bloody cage fight, but this penchant everyone has for minimising candour because of the alleged public relations damage once tempers have cooled does the sport no favours whatsoever.

Vettel comes here under serious pressure after that gaffe. Had he won in Singapore, which he appeared perfectly set to do after taking a stunning pole position, and arch-rival Lewis Hamilton been unable to improve in the race on his fifth place on the grid, the Briton’s three-point lead going into the weekend could have been turned into a 12-point deficit. Instead, with six races remaining and 150 points up for grabs, the German is 28 points behind. Going into the summer break, before Hamilton’s hat-trick rampage in Belgium, Italy and Singapore, he had been 14 points ahead. So can he get back on terms, or does he have to rely on Hamilton running into the sort of problem that he encountered last year when rare failure of his Mercedes power unit effectively handed the title to team-mate Nico Rosberg?

“I don’t know. I think we have a lot of races left,” Vettel said in Sepang on Thursday. “I think we have a strong car. I’m not too fussed about the amount of points. Obviously it’s never good to be behind, I’d like to be in front but we’re not, so I’m not thinking about that.

“I think it depends on the points you have at the end of the year. As I said, if you could choose you want always to be ahead. I would rather not be a little bit behind, but overall it doesn’t change anything for how you tackle the last six races from here.”

Both rivals accept that it will be an all-out war as the remaining six races will be held on a variety of circuits that appear to favour each of their car’s in equal measure. Ferrari are believed to have an upgraded engine here this weekend, however, on a power circuit that ought to favour Mercedes, and they also admit that the development war may be the final decider.

This will be the final Malaysian Grand Prix, after a 19-year span in which it proved hugely popular with the drivers because Sepang is such a stellar, challenging circuit, but less so with the spectators for whom ticket prices have historically been too high. Nor for the Malaysians themselves because of the troubled financial situation here, or Liberty Media, who do not regard it as the sort of race they really want on the calendar.


 Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen 
 (Getty)

“Obviously it’s a while ago, but for sure one of my nicest memories here was 2015, my first win with Ferrari,” Vettel revealed. “It certainly was very special - we came here early in the season, at the very beginning of my time with Ferrari. There’s still a lot of very nice memories coming up, I’m thinking about that day, and how the race happened, what happened after the race. I had a really good time.

“I think the other races, I’m not sure I remember all of them, but 2013 obviously was a bit of a special one - which came with a bit of noise after the race - but still I think it was a good race.”

Interesting, that, since it was the time when he deliberately ignored team boss Christian Horner in the infamous ‘Multi 21’ engine mode scandal in which he refused to concede to team orders not to challenge team-mate Mark Webber who had backed off and was set for a deserved victory. Vettel might not have divulged much about his feelings after Singapore, but he certainly revealed plenty about his underlying character with that comment.