The biggest threat to Mercedes’ period of dominance at the beginning of the turbo-hybrid era in F1 came in the form of Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari.
Following four consecutive championships at Red Bull between 2010 and 2013, Sebastian Vettel opted to make the move to Maranello before the 2015 season in hopes of clinching a fifth world title.
After an intense civil war at Mercedes, which saw Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg clash as they battled for glory, the 2017 season saw the first inter-team title battle since Vettel’s triumph over Fernando Alonso in 2012.
Ferrari emerged as a contender to dethrone Mercedes at the first round of the season in Australia, where Vettel took first blood with Hamilton coming in second. They traded blows for the next two rounds, with the Brit beating the German in China, followed by Vettel getting his own back in Bahrain.
By the time the Azerbaijan Grand Prix rolled around as the eighth stop in the 20-race calendar, Vettel held a rather slim advantage over his rival by 12 points.
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The 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix was the flashpoint in Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton’s intense rivalry
It was Hamilton in the Mercedes who snatched pole position on the Saturday, with fourth being the best Vettel could manage on the Baku street circuit. The Ferrari was quickly on the back of his rival however, benefitting from a clash between Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen at turn three.
Two safety cars were brought out before the drivers had reached lap 17, and Vettel made sure to let his team know that he felt Hamilton was driving unnecessarily slowly behind Bernd Mayländer under both instances.
But it was the second safety car in which things ended up coming to blows. On the exit of turn 14 on lap 19, the four-time world champion was caught out by the Mercedes in front and ended up running into the back of it, damaging his own front wing and the rear diffuser of the W08.
Vettel instantly saw red. Thinking that Hamilton had brake-tested him on the exit, he pulled up alongside the Brit and swerved into his car, bouncing off his front-left tyre.
TV replays and car data showed that Hamilton had not applied his brakes at any point during the first collision, and the stewards put the incident between the two under investigation.
The stewards classed the incident as dangerous driving, forcing them to hand the Ferrari driver a 10-second stop/go penalty for the incident, but still managed to finish a position ahead of his rival, who came home in fifth place.
Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel’s ‘friendship’ developed following their clash in Baku
Hamilton was furious with the German driver, telling reporters, via BBC, after the race, “He was obviously sleeping and driving alongside. Deliberately driving into a driver and coming away scot-free is a disgrace. He disgraced himself.
“If he wants to prove he’s a man, we should do it out of the car, face-to-face. Driving dangerously in any way can put another driver at risk.”
Vettel was just as furious with Hamilton, “It was very clear. We are racing with men. I don’t have a radio to him. If we get a penalty, we should both get a penalty.
“I wasn’t happy with the brake-testing. I drove alongside him and raised my hand to say that is not the way to do it, and we had a little contact.”
Looking back on the moment of madness during a press conference before his final F1 race in 2022, Vettel isn’t proud of the incident and actually noted that his relationship with Hamilton became closer.
He told journalists, via AutoHebdoF1, “Baku 2017 was not the best moment of my career, obviously compared to what happened, which was not good. But from this incident, our friendship was much better! I wish it hadn’t happened.”
As two of the heavyweights of F1 for much of the 2010s, it’s a nice touch to know that both Hamilton and Vettel were able to reconcile their differences and grow closer to each other because of the incident.