TheNailman
Warcock
sad to say, but the driver of the second crash was killed by this one in a million tire hit. what were the odds???
YouTube - Henry Surtees Brands Hatch Crash 2009
YouTube - Henry Surtees Brands Hatch Crash 2009
unfortunate bit of video.
- Thread starter TheNailman
- Start date
LostinMaine
8/26/85 - 5/23/10
OMG!!!!! that's so..... im at a loss for words did this happen this weekend
TheNailman
Warcock
think it happened yesterday. it's just so damned random.
diabloadsit
New member
wow, if you catch a little of the german they are speaking. When the tire flew off the first car it hit the guy in the 2nd yellow car in the head and broke his neck! WOW.
topdeeni
New member
that is just ugly...........
bigsxy
New member
What are the odds that that would happen that's to bad
andrew0790
New member
That's really sad. It's too bad that that happened too. A crash like that shouldn't have caused a wheel to come off one of those cars. The sanctioning body needs to investigate the cause of the wheel tether failure. I've seen crashes much bigger than that in F1 and the wheels more often than not stay tethered to the chassis.
MAINIAC XV
The Eco Man
Open car racing almost as bad as motorcycle racing
andrew0790
New member
Not necessarily. There's always risks in motorsport, but surprisingly enough open wheel racing is very safe as far as racing goes. Really the only exposed part of the driver is his head, and only in a freak accident will something like that happen. Modern formula cars are all designed with a survival tub to protect the driver per the FIA. In addition to this, when a crash occurs the shower of carbon bits that is seen is actually another safety valve. That explosion of bits and pieces is the impact being absorbed and disappated through the destruction of the body work, and the built in crash structures.Open car racing almost as bad as motorcycle racing
Lastly, as I said before that accident should never have happened. Williams Engineering (Williams Toyota F1) designed the FIA Formula 2 chassis, and even this year, in the championship's first season the durability of the wheel tethers has been called into question. Oddly enough the car was designed by a 6 person team led by Patrick Head and was supposed to meet 2009 F1 standards for head protection, and have incorporated wheel tethers. While the head protection standard applies to protection a driver in the event of a shunt with the wall or another car, an open car will never be able to prevent accidents like just happened. The problem is, is that F2 cars are powered by 400bhp Audi I4s fitted with Garrett GT35s. A GP2 car has a 580bhp Renault V8, and I've never seen anything like this happen. Even now in Formula One, engines produce in the region of 750-800bhp, and issues haven't been had in years with wheel tethers in GP2 or F1. Wheels do occasionally detach from F1 cars, but this is because of the huge speeds that the cars achieve, and as a product of those huge speeds, have huge impacts. An F2 car is relatively slow compared to a GP2 or F1 car, and that should have made the task of designing a wheel tether relatively easy for the Williams team who designed the chassis.
For comparison to the Henry Surtees shunt, I've got a video of Roman Grosjean's shunt from Monaco this past year in GP2. Note that none of the wheels are detached from the car, despite the fact that the car was only slowed by the top of the car he hit before hitting the wall.
Also I'll link up a video of a GP2 crash from last year's French round in which a HUGE accident did not detach wheels.
I'm done with my open wheel babbling for now, but remember, those cars are designed to be as safe as possible. On a motorcycle should one get it wrong, the rider is at the mercy of the laws of physics, whatever might be in his path, and the relative fragility of the human body.