Amateur footage uploaded to YouTube gives us another look at the opening lap crash from the 2014 German Grand Prix involving Felipe Massa and Kevin Magnussen. You can also see Daniel Ricciardo forced way off track to avoid the incident.
The race stewards investigated the crash and decided neither Massa nor Magnussen were responsible and no further action was taken. Of course, the drivers don’t always see it like that.
“Luckily I am OK but I am not happy,” said Felipe Massa. “I was in front going into the corner, and so to have another race ended by another driver is not easy. I am doing my best, the team are doing their best, and we just aren’t getting the chances we need.
“Going into the first corner I was near to Valtteri but had to back off to stop an accident, sadly some others didn’t do the same. I am obviously very disappointed.”
Meanwhile, Kevin Magnussen defended himself saying he was unable to avoid contact with Massa.
“A real pity: I think I could’ve had a decent race if I hadn’t had the accident at Turn One,” Magnussen said. “I need to see a replay of the accident, but I feel that, if I’d had somewhere to go, then there wouldn’t have been contact with Felipe.
“I did my best to try and avoid the accident, but there wasn’t much else I could do.”
2 replies on “2014 German GP: Felipe Massa crash”
Massa has been having bad luck and needs to improve his luck by being smarter. It is the start of the race, the first corner, he should have gone a bit wider. I believe the rule states a driver needs to leave room when a part of the other racing car is beside the other, and if this is the rule, Massa should have left room.
Smarter drivers do not make the moves Massa makes, and each race be complains when he gets knocked out. This year for Massa it has been other drivers fault mostly or shared fault.
Felipe does not know the art of avoiding trouble, knowing the spots to make a move and how to go about it better. Massa thinking other drivers will let you by without a fight is foolish……this is Formula 1 racing.
In Canada it was Perez who was at fault. Massa could have been smart and chose more wisely to assess the situation better. Perez was paying attention to the car ahead of him while Massa was braking late and few drivers in the field could react fast enough to leave Maasa room in those circumstances.
He has complained more than any driver this year, last year, and some other years.
I agree with Mikes sentiment that Massa isnt smart at protecting his car. However, I think he has certain amount of arrogance from Ferrari days where drivers thought twice about diving up the inside of a ferrari if they had any aspirations for driving for the Maranello marque. I think one thing that Massa needs to answer is, in the same situation what would he have done if he was in Mag’s position.