I'm not sure the dust will ever fully settle from this one...
One of the most chaotic and entertaining grands prix in years threw up talking points galore. Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen collided, again. The Force India drivers followed up their increased tension from Canada by coming together on track. Red Bull suffered another failure when Max Verstappen was well-placed, and Lance Stroll ended up on the podium with a drive that scarcely seemed possible earlier this year.
But the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix will forever be remembered for what happened towards the end of lap 19. You've all seen it by now, but the basic facts are that Sebastian Vettel ran into the back of Lewis Hamilton, and was enraged because he felt the collision was due to Hamilton braking heavily. Vettel then pulled alongside to remonstrate with the race leader, and swerved into the side of the Mercedes before racing resumed.
The FIA took a dim view of the incident at the time - although for my money, not dim enough - and handed Vettel a 10-second stop/go penalty for dangerous driving. With Hamilton later suffering a headrest problem, it ultimately cost the championship leader the race.
Before I get on my high horse, let me just state that I am a big fan of Vettel. I've often felt he didn't get enough credit for the consistently high level he produced to secure four consecutive championships from 2010-13, and highlight his display when he first joined Ferrari in 2015 as further proof of his talent if anyone was still not convinced. On top of that, he is often humble, honest and full of good humor. When things are going well for him, at least...
But many of those traits disappeared in Baku, where Vettel completely lost control of his emotions. The FIA made clear it had not seen a difference between Hamilton's first race restart - where he caught Vettel out by accelerating out of Turn 16 - and the second. On both occasions, Hamilton was slowly cruising out of Turn 15, having taken over control of the field from the Safety Car.
I was providing the trackside commentary in Baku all weekend, and at the time of the second restart, I mentioned how Vettel would not be caught out again if Hamilton picked the same point to accelerate. Nobody expected anything to happen out of Turn 15, so I was already surprised to see Vettel hit the rear of the Mercedes, let alone what followed. The local host translating the race commentary had limited knowledge of Formula 1 but his face upon seeing the replay of the second collision said it all. For the vast majority, it was utter madness.
After the race, Vettel refused to acknowledge whether he had deliberately hit Hamilton or not. Having been given every opportunity to claims that it was accidental (if it was), the German instead opted to continue criticizing Hamilton for his race restart and dodging the question. Vettel was then told Hamilton felt the incident set a dangerous precedent for children watching the race, to which he replied: "I think F1 is for grownups."
To some extent, Vettel is right. In a perverse way we watch racing for the moments it goes wrong; for the spectacular crashes as much as the brilliant overtaking maneuvers, because the knowledge of how close to the edge the drivers are is what makes it so thrilling.
The problem is, Vettel was only close to the edge of his self-control at that moment in Baku, and he was on the wrong side of that line. This was not a robust passing move where contact is extremely difficult to avoid and a collision somewhat understandable. This was crawling along - for a Formula 1 car - at 30mph After the first contact, to remonstrate alongside Hamilton was not unreasonable if Vettel felt he had been wronged. To hit the Mercedes again was a completely unacceptable act of petulance.
This is open-wheel racing. These cars are not designed for contact. Just one corner later and the whole field accelerated up to 230mph to restart the race, with the two cars at the front having just come together, however slowly. Granted, the speed of the contact makes it unlikely - but not impossible - either car would have a serious failure, but one piece of debris falling off one of those two cars or a puncture as the race restarted could have had major consequences.
Having received some pretty strong opposition to my opinions, I actually ran Twitter poll the next day. The vast majority shared my view that Vettel's actions were deliberate, and therefore a disqualification would have been a more appropriate course of action. There were still those that maintained that was an overreaction due to the speed of the collision, and that the stop/go penalty was more than enough because it cost him victory, but as with many walks of life it was a case of a noisy minority.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I'd point out the penalty was given before Hamilton had to pit with his loose headrest – up until that point, he'd looked comfortable at the front of the field. Had Vettel not hit Hamilton, there would have been less debris on the circuit and therefore less likelihood of the red flag that appeared to lead to the headrest problem, too.
But more importantly, the issue is not with the speed Vettel and Hamilton were going when the contact happened. What matters is, to quote Christian Horner, Vettel's "Tourettes moment", when the "red mist" came down and he lost the ability to restrain himself behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car. We've seen it before with his radio messages to Charlie Whiting in Mexico, and it is worrying.
Heat of the moment is one thing. That is why there is a tolerance of certain radio messages and an acceptance of a driver sometimes having an irrational view from within the cockpit. But there comes a point where there is no excuse, where there is no potential positive outcome and the punishment must fit the crime. There should be zero tolerance for deliberately hitting another driver.
I may not always agree with it, but there are times when I admire Vettel's take-no-prisoners approach, such as the Multi-21 incident in Malaysia in 2013. At the next race, instead of coming out and apologizing, Vettel doubled down and said if he'd gone back in time he would have ignored the team order again as he felt he deserved victory more than team-mate Mark Webber.
However, after Sunday's race Vettel's lack of accountability did him no favors. The championship leader had seen the incident back on the big screens during the red flag period, and yet questioned the penalty he received and did not accept he was wrong to react in the way he did.
And Hamilton is right that young drivers look up to their heroes and want to emulate them. They want to be a multiple F1 world champion, and now they've seen how one reacts when they are angry in the cockpit...
There is currently talk of an FIA intervention, but either way, what Vettel does next is crucial. In Austria, Vettel should own up and apologize for his reaction, even if he wants to maintain Hamilton was at fault for their initial collision. The championship leader needs to learn from his mistakes and control himself better when fired up behind the wheel, otherwise it could serve to undermine his chances in a title battle we all want to see.