All-purpose open-wheel (F1, IRL) racing thread

Piquet is facing a lifetime paddock ban.
He claims there was a problem with the translation from Brazilian Portuguese to English.
Uhhhh, sure.

 

https://deadline.com/2022/06/bernie-ecclestone-vladimir-putin-1235054611/

 

Why do people keep interviewing that senile old dingbat?

 

Max Mosley is unavailable for comment.

 

Is this senility, journalism version?

Back to present ...

1) Thank goodness for the halo.
2) See also: catch fences.
3) If the FIA won't let George Russell back into the race solely because he got out of his wrecked, stopped sled to make sure a fellow driver was OK after a crash like that, then FIA needs to cure its cranial-rectal fusion ... again. If the Mercedes has too much damage, that's another matter, of course.

 

Holy crap! On his lid, then flipped over the barrier and nearly into the grandstand. F1 has a safety car that trails the grid, but it really should be a fully-integrated vehicle with extrication and first response technology instead.

Better than the NASCAR race yesterday at Road America, where Brandon Brown was clearly in pain while trying to climb out of his car after a nasty multi-car wreck. God bless the overweight SCCA cornerworkers for trying to run all the way there to assist, because the NASCAR safety vehicles were nowhere to be found for an inordinate amount of time.

Yes, Road America is a massive facility. But NASCAR continues to get lapped by almost every other form of motorsports for its ineptitude when it comes to arriving at a crash scene swiftly and competently.

 

I can.

If you recall - and I know you and maumann, Driftwood, etc., do – NASCAR couldn't be bothered to lift a finger until Ironhead ended up dead during the Daytona 500. Adam Petty died and they did next to nothing. Ernie Irvan had a crash that permanently disabled him and they did nothing. It took Ironhead's death during its most ballyhooed race of the season to get them to actually, sorta, kinda start to do something.

As has been said recently, that was 20 years ago. NASCAR isn't making the money it used to, hence not being able to find a title sponsor. NASCAR probably doesn't think it's worth the investment to concern themselves with this wave of drivers (i.e., none of them sell the tickets or the sport the way they feel Ironhead did).

Therefore, don't bother, pocket the money and cross your fingers. Part of how the Frances have printed money for generations.

Good luck convincing me that Zhou Guanyu today or Romain Grosjean last year would have been saved by a NASCAR crew, which would have likely taken more time to get to the crash sites.

Penny wise and pound foolish, which describes NASCAR to perfection.

And a huge reason why - in the middle of NASCAR country - I watch Formula One and hammer NASCAR. Unapologetically.

 

Amazing photo. No matter how safe cars and tracks are made, there's always a need to make them safer. The 1955 LeMans crash is a reminder that if something can go wrong, it eventually will. The chances of a car winding up there are very small, but obviously not zero.

That chain-link fence (the kind you can buy at Lowe's or Menard's) plus some reinforcing cable and uprights basically kept an F1 machine out of a grandstand full of spectators today, but only because the car was already scrubbing speed while upside down and going through the gravel. That's really fortunate.

The older I get, the more amazed I am that I've not been injured or killed at some of the sub-standard weekly bullrings I used to attend. Or covered more funerals.

I can only imagine if the car was at full throttle at the same time it caught somebody else's wheel, or cartwheeled instead of rolled. It could have been much worse, for driver and fans.

 

Truthfully, the fence needed more height and more reinforcement.

Picture - if you'll pardon my morbid outlook - if that had happened on any other lap except the start. The vehicle would have been going at a faster speed, which could have meant a higher flip or barrel roll. In other words, the flipping sled clears the fence and we have LeMans again. Only this time, the Mercedes involved stayed within the confines of the track and on the ground.

Also a fortunate break - relative to the crash - that what was usually the bottom of the machine hit flush against the fence. Not saying he loved having his head and halo near the tire barrier, but there's nowhere near the compression issue that if the force of that flipping, flying machine is pressed into the fence.

Give that fence another six feet in height at the least, and make sure there are more cables reinforcing should the poles and chain link not be able to withstand the forces.

EDIT: Looking at the replay on ESPNews, there is plenty of cable reinforcement. But still needs another 4-6 feet of height.

 

Also, heard the George Russell interview again during the replay. He said all that was wrong with this machine was a puncture, which means they could have replaced that and gotten back into the fray. But the FIA disqualified him because he put humanity ahead of a rule. FIA didn't cover itself in glory on this front. Toto Wolff might as well have his own dedicated line into the race director at this rate.