'Is this AI?' - F1 fans speculate over controversial Max Verstappen crash footage at Dutch Grand Prix

Max Verstappen, generic, Dutch GP, 2026, Red Bull Racing — Photo: © IMAGO

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'Is this AI?' - F1 fans speculate over controversial Max Verstappen crash footage at Dutch Grand Prix

Did the footage need to be more dramatic than it already was?

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Monday 24 August 2026 18:15

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The most dramatic moment of Sunday's Dutch Grand Prix was, by some margin, Max Verstappen crashing on the opening lap of his last ever home race.

Fans were shown replays from every single camera available - trackside shots, a camera pointing down the home straight, onboards from every driver with a view of the incident, and more.

What they may not have seen, however, was a clip which was shown in the podium drivers' cooldown room after the race. A shot which moved smoothly from a trackside view into Verstappen's onboard.

Article continues under video

Obviously there was no single camera rolling that shot and, when the clip was posted on social media, fans were split on the artificial transition between the two camera shots.

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Verstappen crash clip splits fans online

While some were taken by the cinematic look of the clip, others bemoaned that 'AI' (GPFans has contacted F1 for comment and clarity on the technology used in the clip) was being used, with one adding 'This isn’t a movie, it’s real life. Let’s be serious'.

Other fans have suggested that there may not have been any AI (in the popular sense) used at all, with 'Gaussian splatting' a popular suggestion - a technique recently used to similar effect on recent Olympic broadcasts.

What counts as 'using AI'?

Outside of debates about the necessity of the smooth transition - 'We don't need to make crash replays look like The Fast & The Furious', said one fan - the conversation raises some interesting questions about the understanding of AI in the popular consciousness.

What counts as 'using AI'? Can the general public actually tell things generated by AI from things altered using 'traditional' methods like Photoshop and CGI rendering, and where exactly is the line between – for example – using a Photoshop tool to put clouds in an image, and asking ChatGPT to do the same thing?

We're an F1 site, though. As such, we'll leave those questions to more people more qualified to answer them.

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