Jules Bianchi Undergoes Surgery

Technically you dont black flag a race but red flag it. Black is for drivers.

 

Every event has a variety of causes. If altering one aspect will prevent it from happening again does it really matter if it was the "prime" cause or not?

 

The speeds are comparatively: if you deploy a SC and have a full course yellow where everybody drops to two figure speeds and two guys drop only enough to be remain in triple digits and also are closing the gap forward then it is easy to prove they broke the rule or at least its spirit.

 

It seems like all of you are forgetting Schumacher in Brazil 2003.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43WIaLKspP4
I would always get a flashback of this incident whenever I see a crane on the track. There should be ZERO reasons for any heavy equipment on the track unless they have some kind of protection. It's very sad that it took Bianchi's terrible accident to change things.
If he missed the crane by a few meters everything would have continued without any changes.

 

I never forgot that accident: MS was nearly decapitated

But: what can you do in those conditions? It was instant chaos. That was the race where they couldnt figure out the winner until weeks later, that speaks to the chaos

 

Well misunderstanding across series/sanctioning/events on my part. In some series, red means it is ok to stop on track in a safe location. Sometimes this can lead to an even worse accident. Usually people always try to pit, but the red flag is ambiguous to some extent. Black is pretty clear, but I'm not sure if it is used in this manner in F1.

 

I think it was mentioned before - have some sort of device on the car that slows it to pit lane speeds when a crane is on track or when there are adverse conditions under yellow.

Technology must be available, but you have race control manage it. It applies to all cars, not individually, because you know there would be accusations of improper application.

It's a little drastic, but I fear poor Bianchi has been somewhat forgotten. Sad. Should never happen again.

 

But wasn't there just an incident earlier this year where Kimi got caught behind two guys going insanely slow on a yellow, and complained over the radio? Can't recall which GP it was. I just think any ambiguity will always be seen as an opportunity by drivers.

 

All I'm saying is that the danger was obvious. It was just a matter of time before somebody got hurt. You can't have heavy equipment that weighs 10+ tons without any protection out on the track with speeding 600kg cars. It doesn't matter if it's chaotic or not and it doesn't matter if it's wet or dry.

 

Haven't rule changes been implemented already? The virtual safety car for instance? Action has been taken. Let's move on.

 

It's an interesting thought on remotely limiting the speeds in specific zones. At least one counter argument I could see is that if they invoke the speed limit remotely and the throttle cuts on a driver to meet the limit, it could induce a spin. Say the timing is off and they just activated the limiter in the given zone and he comes flying it at 150mph in a turn and they cut the throttle, the car may spin instantly. Could be really nasty.

 

Thery could be given a warning on the dash, or the remote intervention be activated progressively.
F1 is a sport that is full of electronics, so I cannot see why this cannot be solved.

 

You are right Bas. However, i still think if there's crane presence on the track, with the fact there was a typhoon rain, the race, IMHO should have been stopped. We can argue if it was a dry race, but it was not.

I'm not saying that each time a crane comes on track we have to red flag the race. But, i believe this whole thing could have been avoided, given the circumstances, if it was indeed red flagged.

As someone mentioned, yellow flag, most drivers think it's best to cover ground. Given that it was a backmarker team, I would not be surprised at all if they had given him the hurry up. Each one of us today can argue he ultimately has the choice to make, but given the situation, i'm sure each and everyone on this board would have gun for it.

Very sad situation, which i think could have been avoided.

 

Don't forget this...back in 2007.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3t56uLqlVI


**Skip to 1:05**

 

It would all have been avoided if he didn't overspeed, is the sad reality. If it was flagged, we would all be complaining that the race was ruined because it was flagged. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Motorsport quite simply is still very dangerous, but we can't stop every race every time someone goes off track, because we think a driver or team wants to risk going faster (and they'll simply get a penalty in any case). A race restart takes 20 minutes at least (and certainly more now that all the cars need so many more things done to it to keep them alive) so it's simply not viable.

The solution they have in place, a safety car or virtual safety car is the only viable one IMO.

This race was flagged.

 

Well I think it's a big assumption that nothing would have happened had the crane not been there. So let's say he hits the wall and the same thing happens or even almost as bad... do you then say the wall shouldn't be there? I mean at one point are just so far out of the ordinary circumstances just that?

I mean where should you start? Looking at that incident, what are the first things that should have changed? The crane? I don't think so. Still essentially racing in the downpour under double yellow in a corner you know just caused another crash with the car still there is the logical error and thing that needed to not happen... not the crane.

Let's just argue this through... let's say the crane isn't there and he slams over 100mph (as estimated from reports) into Sutil while in the downpour under double yellow and they both get seriously hurt or worse. What then? Everyone would be either screaming that the crane should been out there getting the car or what the hell was Bianchi thinking.

The bottom line is it's all just terrible but if there's going to be legitimate lessons learned everyone has to first be honest with the facts and not let sadness, loyalty, or just plain emotion cloud what really happened.

 

They raced in Tropical Storm conditions. This was utterly avoidable simply by not racing or starting earlier. Things might be a bit mixed up in the rain but its hardly good racing compared to dry conditions.

 

Hit a two ton crane or hit a barrier designed to absorb crash energy?

I know which one I'd pick.

 

I dont:

Hit a crash barrier at 90 degrees at 150mph? You are done for.

He did not hit the crane at the same angle, quite the contrary: he went alongside it and it destroyed the left side of the car absorbing a lot of energy

Remember the helmet was intact (as well as his head). Not impact did the damage but deceleration. Of which he would have likely endured more going into the barrier

 

There's no way for us to know all the particulars of this case. In general though I'd rather aim for a barrier than a crane every time.

 

Same...especially the new barriers. Look at Verstappen's accident at Monaco. I can't find the speed, but it was pretty fast and dead on. Buuuuut, those barriers aren't everywhere. There is always risk of course.

 

Motor racing is dangerous. Like is says on the tickets.

There's a reason the tracks are lined with safety barriers and not John Deeres.

 

Of course. I meant that not all walls and barriers are updated to the latest barriers on all sections of all F1 tracks.

 

They're not?

 

Certainly not. There are a variety of barriers in use and also some solid walls in places as well. I believe they invest in the safest barriers in the most dangerous places with the highest chance of high speed impact.