A Ferrari 458 spun out of control while travelling along the East Coast Parkway expressway on May 18, 2021.

Footage of the incident shot from a vehicle travelling behind the sports car showed the unforced error in all its glory.

What happened

Sped up, corrected left after going right

The Ferrari, on the right-most lane, could be seen speeding up initially, before swerving to the right slightly.

However, it appeared that in an attempt to correct the car's direction to the left, oversteer occurred as the back of the car began to fishtail.

Oversteer is a technique used in drifting.

Corrected right but resulted in more oversteer

To compensate for the car swerving to the left, the driver could have steered hard back to the right, resulting in the rear of the Ferrari to fishtail in an even more pronounced manner.

Fishtail arc widened

This steering left and right repeatedly to overcompensate for the change in direction only made the car fishtail even more.

The Ferrari ended up sweeping across the right-most lane to the middle lane, and clipping the bus on the left-most lane.

The Ferrari's bumper became dislodged after its rear hit the centre divider.

The Ferrari eventually spun around 180 degrees before coming to a stop.

Why did car fishtail?

The fishtail motion could have happened owing to the tires having very little grip on the road's surface as it was raining and slippery.

The momentum from swinging side-to-side could have been exacerbated due to the Ferrari being rear-heavy, as its engine is mounted in the rear of the car.

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