’ve had plenty of heavy shunts in go-karts, but the one time I’ve been in anything anywhere near properly quick – a Radical around Silverstone – I kept it on the black stuff.
So I certainly don’t have the ability to directly compare what George Russell and Valtteri Bottas will have been feeling when they climbed out of their cars after their huge incident at Imola. But there were things I saw that I liked, and things that I didn’t.
Firstly, the negative. It didn’t look like Russell was heading over to Bottas with anything other than the intention to have a go at him. The first thought didn’t appear to be if the other driver was OK after a crash at such speeds, but it was to remonstrate with him before he could even get out of his car.
I remember being at Spa in 2012 and my initial reaction to the crash between Romain Grosjean, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso being how seismic it was for the championship. I was quickly put in my place by a more seasoned journalist that it was of secondary importance until we’d seen everyone involved was OK. And he was completely right.