Why did Vettel park the car where he did?

[F1Pete]

Okay, I wam wondering why Vettel parked his car where he did to cause the deployment of the safety car. It changed the whole dynamic of the race. He had plenty of opportunity to drive it off the track well out of the way. The safety car definitely gave an fresh opportunity for RBR to close the gap on Rosberg.

I was reminded of Michael Schumacher's parking incident during qualifying in Monaco that year.

[Knowlesy]

I think the two situations are rather more different, to be honest.

He simply thought it was a safe place to park, given accidents in that part of the circuit are rare. That would be my guess. He was slightly wrong of course, but no big deal.

[karting]

Originally Posted by F1Pete

Okay, I wam wondering why Vettel parked his car where he did to cause the deployment of the safety car. It changed the whole dynamic of the race. He had plenty of opportunity to drive it off the track well out of the way. The safety car definitely gave an fresh opportunity for RBR to close the gap on Rosberg.

I was reminded of Michael Schumacher's parking incident during qualifying in Monaco that year.

[F1Pete]

All I said is I was reminded of Schumacher's blatant Monaco incident. I will clarify now that I am not comparing the two. It just seemed with the onboard camera he had all kinds of time to park somewhere else.

[Alan Raine]

I think he may have been trying to reset the software. I believe there is a way of doing this from inside the car. Hamilton had a similar problem a few years ago in Brazil but in this case it was not possible for Vettel as it turned out. I certainly don't see anything malicious in what he did.

[Paradise City]

'Coz he's a villain.

[Cougar]

Also one could assume he was busy dealing with the possibilities of getting the car to work again. Once he realised that wasn't going to happen it was already too late and he was already next to the pit wall?

[IceMan_PJN]

Originally Posted by Cougar

Also one could assume he was busy dealing with the possibilities of getting the car to work again. Once he realised that wasn't going to happen it was already too late and he was already next to the pit wall?

This is my thought, as well.

[jsTrecu]

Originally Posted by Cougar

Also one could assume he was busy dealing with the possibilities of getting the car to work again. Once he realised that wasn't going to happen it was already too late and he was already next to the pit wall?

This is what I thought too.

[Robin_D]

Racing drivers don't think. They don't think of where the safe place would be, they're too busy speaking to the team.

Either that or they are trying to get it red flagged......

[Marbot]

It was the best place on the track for a bit of sun-bathing.

[Dave M]

Originally Posted by Marbot

It was the best place on the track for a bit of sun-bathing.

Indeed it was. What most people failed to notice was that our German hero/villain walked over at 6.00 in the morning and laid a towel over that particular piece of track.

[Bononi]

Originally Posted by Dave M

Indeed it was. What most people failed to notice was that our German hero/villain walked over at 6.00 in the morning and laid a towel over that particular piece of track.

So germanic...

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by Robin_D

Racing drivers don't think. They don't think of where the safe place would be, they're too busy speaking to the team.

Either that or they are trying to get it red flagged......

Really? Maybe you should watch Heikki at Sinapore in 2011 (??) and wonder if racing drivers think or not

[F1Pete]

My apologies for comparing this to Schumacher. I should have thought of Nelson Piquet.

[Jimmy Magnusson]

He spent the last two corners trying to find gears that worked, you could see him cycling through the gearbox. Once he was out of gears he was also out of speed and with not a lot of options to go. Given that he ended up in an OK spot at the inside of the corner. People are way too keen on conspiracy theories.

[Knowlesy]

Originally Posted by Cougar

Also one could assume he was busy dealing with the possibilities of getting the car to work again. Once he realised that wasn't going to happen it was already too late and he was already next to the pit wall?

This combined with my answer is the answer!

Originally Posted by F1Pete

My apologies for comparing this to Schumacher. I should have thought of Nelson Piquet.

No need for apologies friend.

[Aysedasi]

I thought it was a disgrace. Utterly disgraceful. I think he should get at least a 5-race ban.

[TimRTC]

I was hoping people might argue that he was trying to force a safety car to help Webber and others saying he was forcing a safety car to block Webber...

[MGDavid]

Originally Posted by F1Pete

Okay, I wam wondering why Vettel parked his car where he did to cause the deployment of the safety car. It changed the whole dynamic of the race. He had plenty of opportunity to drive it off the track well out of the way. The safety car definitely gave an fresh opportunity for RBR to close the gap on Rosberg.

I was reminded of Michael Schumacher's parking incident during qualifying in Monaco that year.

I thought exactly the same; he'd tried what he could, he'd called in on the radio, he then let the car drift on at walking pace, past the obvious parking spot just before the pitwall, and even when alongside the wall made a steering movement away from the wall, leaving a good metre or more gap. I was half-expecting the steering to jam on left lock and it get parked sideways across the track!
(ducks and awaits a utube link to the event which proves me wrong...)

[Massa_number1]

seems like Webber agrees with you haha

http://www.gptoday.com/full_story/vi...el_Schumacher/

[F1Pete]

...I thought Webber made reference to that when the cameras were rolling. I should check that out again.

[GT6]

Vettel seems to be unable to comprehend that there was still a race on after his retirement, he had the chance to park his car safely but instead ensured that a safety car would be needed it was not the act of a gentleman or a professional driver

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by GT6

Vettel seems to be unable to comprehend that there was still a race on after his retirement, he had the chance to park his car safely but instead ensured that a safety car would be needed it was not the act of a gentleman or a professional driver

In the land of asinine F1 comments this one is the winner. Were you watching the event or just decided that he didn't make it to the pits so he must have parked in the middle of a turn? He was trying to get the car moving again until he ran out of momentum and had to coast against the wall. That's right, he actually thought about it and moved off the line with the last of his momentum to get out of the racing line for other drivers rather than continuing on until he stopped mid-track. Sounds like a professional driver to me, just nowhere else for him to go at that point. If you want to attack unprofessional moves stick with actual crap moves and stop examining pebbles to find a conspiracy.

[Robin_D]

To be fair it's not just Vettel or indeed F1. I've dealt with many drivers in the past that have just stopped, sometimes in the middle of the straight.

This ranges from leaders with a devious plan to try to get a red flag and the race put back a lap or just plain idiocity.