An F1 Car Got Demolished By A Manhole Cover On The Track


The Formula 1 schedule makes its way to the Baku City Circuit this week in Azerbaijan. Honestly, the only reason I even know that Baku’s in Azerbaijan isn’t because I follow F1 racing closely but it’s because I have a cousin who’s a Formula 1 addict and travels the world to see all of the races a handful of times each year and I remember seeing his photographs from this track a few years back.

Anyway, Formula 1’s in Azerbaijan this week and the first practice on the track experienced an emergency stop after the Williams Racing car got demolished by a rogue manhole cover that popped off the track, hit the car, and sent pieces of the car flying into the air along with sparks.

There was an HD camera zoomed in on the Williams F1 car as it got hit by the manhole cover so we get a really good view of what the damage looked like in slow motion. This is 100% NOT something you ever see on a race track and I wouldn’t be shocked if there will be jobs lost as racing officials try and determine what the heck happened and who is responsible for this.

This led to an immediate Red Flag on practice as repairs were needed.

This is unreal! The car was taken out of the race BY THE TRACK.

But wait….there’s more:

How do you butt fumble a cleanup effort like that? Get your shit together, Azerbaijan.

I’m sure this is the last way in hell that the race officials imagined this Baku event kicking off. The first practice ending under Red Flag because the track took one of their premier cars/teams/racers out of the event. I’m also curious as to what sort of ramifications there will be for something like this. Do the hosts pay for the costs of the repair? Or is it really a ‘drive at your own risk’ situation out there?

By the way, Baku is where the world record for ‘fastest pit stop’ was set back in 2016 and if you blink you might miss this because it’s that fast:

For more on this, you can click here to check out Formula One’s report from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.