Running 2023 Motorsports thread

What bothers me most is that the driver's escape hatch came off early in the crash, leaving him exposed from anything entering the top of the car. Thankfully it really only touched down on grass and dirt for all those rolls. (EDIT: Actually it did land on the exit of the road course bus stop chicane, but had lost some energy by then.) That'll be poured over at R&D in Charlotte over the off-season.

And the Ryan Blaney wreck at the end of stage 2 was incredibly nasty -- head-on into the outside wall at full speed. The fact that he walked away and wasn't Dale Earnhardted is a testament to the safety of the HANS and all the extra crush points NASCAR has built into these bricks since 2001.

 

I’ve never seen the SAFER barrier (thank you, Tony George and Nebraska-Lincoln) compress more than for Blaney’s crash.

Nor have I seen a more fierce combination barrel-roll (10 by my count) snap-roll combination than what Preece endured. That was a plane crash. And both walked away, albeit woozy in Preece’s case.

 

And Preece stuck the landing. That was nightmarish.

 

Green light at Zandvoort … and it’s starting to rain.

 

The thing that's sticking with me about Preece's wreck is the torque on those flips. It looked like the car was floating on an invisible spindle and somebody gave it a hard twirl. If it weren't for the hard landing at the end, that would be a hell of an amusement park ride.

 

I'm grateful for the way modern cars are overbuilt for safety. Nobody with any sense wants to see someone get hurt.
I also caution younger drivers that their cars nor they are bulletproof. This isn't a video game. You can't hit restart and get a new life.
I honestly don't think it's as bad as it was a few year ago, but there was a stretch where drivers did stupid things because there was no consequences for a major crash.

 

It looked like the old Papyrus NASCAR PC game if you took a car and ran it backwards on the oval into the pack for shits and giggles. The computer didn't know what to do for such an unrealistic wreck, so cars would spin like a top at a rate one thought might be unrealistic. Maybe Papyrus was on to something? Preece did four mid-air barrel rolls between hitting the ground at the peak of that wreck. Insane.

I wouldn't be so sure he's going to shake this off quickly. Simon Pagenaud did a similar bunch of barrel rolls in an IndyCar practice accident at Mid-Ohio back in July and he still hasn't returned. God only knows the neurological effect of the G-load those drivers are enduring.

 

The weather not withstanding, I like the Dutch circuit. It actually allows for racing.
Verstappen winning nine in a row doesn't promote a healthy series.

 

Zandvoort really is a hell of a track. Today's race was as interesting and exciting as it could have been with Verstappen/Red Bull's dominance. Lots of good strategy debate, a lot of overtaking, a lot of drivers pushing to the edge of traction and barely controlling the cars — all-around good stuff.

Verstappen's dominance definitely saps a big part of the interest week to week. Even when Hamilton was winning his championships, his car wasn't this dominant. If Max gets away cleanly in the first lap (which he pretty much always does), the race is over. But, ultimately, it's on the other constructors to build better cars. Max is great, don't get me wrong. But until Mercedes FUBAR'd its car under the new regs, Max was more of an arrogant foil than a world beater.

Hopefully, the other constructors can get their engineering and factory work in order this offseason to compete with Red Bull next season. I certainly hope this dominance doesn't last until 2026.

Oh, and it wouldn't hurt the other teams to get better in the goddamn pit lane, which Red Bull also somehow dominates.

 

I love Zandvoort. On paper it shouldn't really work -- the straight isn't very long and the sweeping first turn shouldn't be all that conducive to passing. You can pass, though, and the fact that you can legitimately take multiple lines through turn three is kind of awesome. (I had tickets for the first race back at Zandvoort in 2020. Then Covid hit. Sigh.)

Verstappen's domination kind of sucks, but that's F1. Being a constructor's series means that more often than not, one team will dominate. We're at least seeing signs of competence from other teams beyond Mercedes, so I hope they can catch up at some point. Won't be this season.