Formula 1 2012: General Discussion Thread

Rascasse

Maria de Villota has lost her right eye and has a fractured skull, Marussia have confirmed to PA.

She's now in a Critical but stable condition after surgery.

PJTierney

G-Money

Yeah just read that, really sad to hear it. Hopefully it will be good news and a speedy recovery from here on.

Myrddin

Rascasse wrote: »

Maria de Villota has lost her right eye and has a fractured skull, Marussia have confirmed to PA.

She's now in a Critical but stable condition after surgery.

Thats terrible, must have been some impact.

Zagato

Could have been a lot worse. I wonder was her visor penetrated?

Rascasse

Zagato wrote: »

Could have been a lot worse. I wonder was her visor penetrated?

Thats what I wondered when I first saw that photo from the scene. The tail lift looked at the same height as her visor.

Myrddin

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Its a credit to modern helmet design, 20 years ago she would have most likely been killed (same goes for Massa).

Definitely. Also to be fair to helmet design, they're probably not designed around withstanding an impact against pointed/protruding metal as is the case with the back/underside of a truck

As with Massa it's amazing that they could have such serious facial injuries without a fatality.


As for the penalties the first thing they need to do is speed everything up. 7 laps for a jump-start penalty, 3 laps to get the safety car ahead of the right car, etc. How is it that pitlane speeding penalties aren't instant?

losthorizon

Rascasse wrote: »

Maria de Villota has lost her right eye and has a fractured skull, Marussia have confirmed to PA.

She's now in a Critical but stable condition after surgery.

Terrible news

Max_Charger

Zagato wrote: »

Could have been a lot worse. I wonder was her visor penetrated?

People are reporting she had her visor fully open parking the car.
Terrible news,but could of been way worse. If the trailer was a few inches lower then the result would be alot different,but a few inches higher and we wouldn't even be talking about this. Her first test for Marussia,trying to get herself into F1 and this happens. Life really isn't fair sometimes. Lots of people called for closed cockpit racing now. Hopefully she makes a full recovery and gets back into motorsport. Sight in 1 eye didn't stop the likes of Paul Drayson,so shouldn't stop her either.

Larbre34

What a terrible outcome to have a young woman disabled like that. Hopefully with rehab she will get back to a near normal life away from racing. Best wishes to her on a long road ahead

As a freak accident there mightnt be much to be learned but perhaps there should be tighter regulation of some of these off schedule tests

Ghost Train

Sad to hear about a crash like that, pretty bad injuries by the sound of it, hope she's okay in the long term

frostie500

Larbre34 wrote: »

As a freak accident there mightnt be much to be learned but perhaps there should be tighter regulation of some of these off schedule tests

I think F1 should be very wary about making drastic changes to the aero testing. These tests are used to correlate wind tunnel results and are generally incident free. It's basically a driver going up a runway and turning around to go back down it.

When the run is finished they come back to the "pits" and switch off the engine a safe distance from the mechanics and slow down to be wheeled back into the awning. By some of the initial accounts it seems like the anti-stall kicked in and was a contributory cause of the accident.

Obviously I have no evidence to back up this up but I would be surprised if it was a software glitch. The first thing that came to my mind when I heard about the anti stall was that the driver had to have done something to activate the system. Whether it was having the throttle opened slightly (by resting her foot on it) or not actually braking and just coasting towards her garage etc. But for the software to kick in there was clearly a reason for it.

Once it kicked in, and lets say Maria had her foot on the throttle, she would have been taken by surprised and accelerated hard towards the scene of the accident leaving her helpless to avoid it.

Like I said Im just putting 2 and 2 together for this and Marussia will presumably never give the full details but to restrict aero testing, a cheap and safe means of ensuring the wind tunnel results are accurate, would be throwing the baby out with the bath water

frostie500

frostie500 wrote: »

I think F1 should be very wary about making drastic changes to the aero testing. These tests are used to correlate wind tunnel results and are generally incident free. It's basically a driver going up a runway and turning around to go back down it.

When the run is finished they come back to the "pits" and switch off the engine a safe distance from the mechanics and slow down to be wheeled back into the awning. By some of the initial accounts it seems like the anti-stall kicked in and was a contributory cause of the accident.

Obviously I have no evidence to back up this up but I would be surprised if it was a software glitch. The first thing that came to my mind when I heard about the anti stall was that the driver had to have done something to activate the system. Whether it was having the throttle opened slightly (by resting her foot on it) or not actually braking and just coasting towards her garage etc. But for the software to kick in there was clearly a reason for it.

Once it kicked in, and lets say Maria had her foot on the throttle, she would have been taken by surprised and accelerated hard towards the scene of the accident leaving her helpless to avoid it.

Like I said Im just putting 2 and 2 together for this and Marussia will presumably never give the full details but to restrict aero testing, a cheap and safe means of ensuring the wind tunnel results are accurate, would be throwing the baby out with the bath water

I don't like this post, there isn't enough panic in it.

Cookie_Monster

on the up side eye patchs look cool

my question is what was the truck even doing there, was it not at a proper circuit with a pit setup?

Rascasse

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

on the up side eye patchs look cool

my question is what was the truck even doing there, was it not at a proper circuit with a pit setup?

No. This took place at Duxford Aerodrome (which is now home to the Imperial War Museums aircraft display). Teams use aerodromes like Duxford or Dunsfold for aero testing as they are only permitted to do straight line tests so somewhere with a runway is ideal. They use big marquee tents in place of 'pits'.

Rascasse

frostie500 wrote: »

When the run is finished they come back to the "pits" and switch off the engine a safe distance from the mechanics and slow down to be wheeled back into the awning. By some of the initial accounts it seems like the anti-stall kicked in and was a contributory cause of the accident.

This is what I don't really get. I always assumed that anti-stall just pulled in the clutch if the revs got too low. Does anti-stall actually have the ability to increase revs whilst the car is in gear? I.e, accelerate the car? Bizarre if true.

frostie500

Rascasse wrote: »

This is what I don't really get. I always assumed that anti-stall just pulled in the clutch if the revs got too low. Does anti-stall actually have the ability to increase revs whilst the car is in gear? I.e, accelerate the car? Bizarre if true.

No it doesnt but what I am assuming could have happened is that Maria was coming into the pits and switched off the engine as you normally do but maybe she had the foot slightly on the throttle (lets say only a couple of percent open) but because of this the software sees that there is an attempt for acceleration, meaning that the engine is required to be switched on.

The software kicks in and starts the engine meanwhile with maria having a small throttle opening and, even though it would be pretty small opening, the acceleration of an F1 car is such that she could easily have been taken unaware by this and not had time to react and avoid the crash.

Rascasse

Rascasse wrote: »

This is what I don't really get. I always assumed that anti-stall just pulled in the clutch if the revs got too low. Does anti-stall actually have the ability to increase revs whilst the car is in gear? I.e, accelerate the car? Bizarre if true.

Anti-stall disengages the clutch and then gives control of the clutch back to the driver when they fully depress the clutch paddle.

I suppose someone inexperienced with the system could get flustered by this losing and then 'handing back' of clutch control. I don't know if they have it on the single-seaters she has actively raced.

cherryghost

Relevant to discussion:

The evolution of an F1 car through the years.

Also

Charlie-Bravo

Trying to find out information about this trophy that Bruno Senna has 'won' but i don't really get what it means, or how a driver would win it?! Anyone any info?

http://www.trofeobandini.com/Home%20page/Home%20page.htm

Rascasse

astrofluff wrote: »

Trying to find out information about this trophy that Bruno Senna has 'won' but i don't really get what it means, or how a driver would win it?! Anyone any info?

http://www.trofeobandini.com/Home%20page/Home%20page.htm

According to ESPN: "It is given to a driver in honour of their dedication to motor racing, spirit of competition and achievement, and is awarded on the basis of how results were achieved rather than the results themselves."

Seems very strange. I don't remember him doing anything of note in the Lotus after they sacked Heidfeld.

Maybe because he gave up (assuming he did) a drive at HRT for the third driver role at a better team and it paid off, thus showing 'dedication' and/or 'spirit',??? I'm clutching at straws though.

Charlie-Bravo

Thanks for that - I was thinking that by Spa he'd be replaced as he doesn't seem to be unlocking the car's potential or getting reasonable results on track. After winning such a prestigious trophy, you can't replace a driver mid-season if he is dedicated, has spirit but no ability :rolleyes:

EireIceMan

Marussia have confirmed that Maria de Villota is conscious, and talking to her
family and friends. Great news

counterlock

Can ye recommend any good online stores for merchandise? I haven't bought anything since 03

Jordan 199

There's going to be a programme about ex Brabham & McLaren designer Gordon Murray on BBC4 this morning at 3.20am and a repeat will be on BBC4 on this Tuesday at 11.50pm.

Rascasse

Jordan 191 wrote: »

There's going to be a programme about ex Brabham & McLaren designer Gordon Murray on BBC4 this morning at 3.20am and a repeat will be on BBC4 on this Tuesday at 11.50pm.

I watched it tonight on BBC4 and would recommend it.

The premise of the show centres around his company designing the city car he launched a while back. While that may sound more than a little uninspiring they do, however, keep dipping back into his past career so there are interviews with people from his Brabham days like Bernie and Herbie Blash.

He also talks about the cars he designed and some of the ways he 'interpreted' the F1 regs. From memory they look at the BT44, BT46 (fan car), BT49 (dodgy suspension, though no mention of the water cooled brakes scam) and the Piquet BT52/53 days. Not much about the McLaren days though.

They also look the McLaren F1 and the LCC Rocket.

Definitely worth watching.

Rascasse

Double post.

vectra

Webber signs with RBR for another year

http://en.espnf1.com/redbull/motorsport/story/83835.html?CMP=chrome

smellslikeshoes

I'd say the contract getting signed now was RBR upping the terms after realising he's in with a serious shout this year. Would have been some serious egg on faces if he had signed for Ferrari or someone then ended up winning it.