It was the first time we'd ever seen a Formula 1 car slalom flat-out through a slow-moving traffic jam. And it was terrifying. We are talking a speed differential of well over 100mph, many, many times greater than that which killed Gilles Villeneuve in 1982, an accident that was all about one driver cruising, another on a flat-out qualifying lap.
The regulations as currently configured are tailor-made to create exactly that situation. All it would have taken for an aircraft-style crash at Sepang on Saturday would have been one of the five drivers on their in-laps to have wandered a few feet off line, unaware even there was a car approaching them at racing speeds.
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In the magazine: Wheldon the Lionheart
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