Michael Schumacher crashes after tire blow out

Maybe he will be ok.

 

He is ok and it is another testament to the rigidity of these monocoques. Lucky him.

 

He gonna have to shake it off.....hope hes fine !!

 

Actually, he doesn't have to shake it off, does he? Has Ferrari already clinched both titles, or just the driver's champ??

 

Makes a man start to think about why to come back next year?

How many titles do you have? and how much money in the bank?

....just one flat tire away from not enjoying the rest of your perfect life.


The guys got guts if he comes back next year with nothing left to prove.

 

Courtesy of F1racing.net. And Sutton images, I guess.

 

It's the statistics, that make me nervous: Michael had already tons of nearly fatal accidents. Remember last year in Sao Paulo where he almost got decapitated by that big yellow machine/truck?

How many times do you get lucky? That's what I'd be asking myself. Michael has been lucky many, many times.

 

As much as I want him to be part of F1 and see him race for few more years, he is going to realize if it is worth getting killed and/or disabled for the rest of his life to go for another WDC. He's got a family to think about... A man with his accomplishments can find a very nice position with Ferrari F1 where he can provide his contributions differently and still be able to drive those cool cars.

 

Having watched live on TV Regazzoni crash in Long Beach I'm always concerned about guys at the top of their game. Rega should have called it quits the year before. I hope I never have to make a similar statement about Michael.

7 titles, the most wins and probably soon the most poles, what else is there to get? Enjoy your new digs at Lake Geneva with the wife, kids and 50 cars. Be a consultant to the Ferrari team and enjoy the fruits of your life.

 

Micheal is a true competitor in that if he is not driving in anger and winning he feels empty inside. i felt the same way when i races motocross and jet skis and to this day i still feel the need for a release. In fact i am thinking of dusting off the old motocross gear and racing in the vets class again.

 

If you knew how you would die, im sure you would stay in bed that day. End of the day, you need to live your life...to the fullest, you can die just by walking down the street now a days. Cant think like that, yes its bad, but he needs to shake it off, same as anything else.Get back in your horse MS, its where you belong !! Get some rest see you soon, its another day at the office.

 

Those cars are much safer than they were 20 years ago. I'm sure the factory has considered all aspects of Michael’s safety.

 

Amen. Michael knows the risks. He is doing what he loves, and thats that. Keep on driving I say.

 

Damn, I hope he is okay! Both physically and mentally for next weekend's race. Btw, you reach 360kmph (not 300) before braking at the end of the main straight. It's the fastest section of all the F1 circuits.

lol... 20 years ago? Comparing the design of the cars from now and then, they're almost completely unrecognisable. Especially when it comes to safety.

Today's F1 cars are much much safer than those of even 5 years ago. Ever since the disastrous weekend at Imola in 1994, the rate of safety improvements made to Formula 1 cars (and tracks) has been astonishing.

 

seriously, what did they do back then, strap an aluminum fuel tank with tide-downs and go race. If this happened 20 years ago, the car would of burst into flames and he would be badly burned if not dead.

 

Well back then the safety cell concept didn't really exist. The materials used in the cars weren't strong enough to withstand a high speed impact anyway, and the cars often flew completely apart. Gilles Villenueve's 1982 testing accident at Zolder sadly demonstrated this; he was also ejected from what was left of the car.

Basically the driver was strapped into this cramped aluminium tube with nothing to protect him. There were no effective crumple zones. The rim of the chassis where the driver steps into the car was made of plastic. Surrounding him in the sidepods were fuel tanks which more often than not ruptured and caught fire in high speed accidents.

I saw a video recently from the Goodwood Festival of Speed where Jaques Villeneuve was describing the various aspects of his father's car (which he was about to do a demonstration drive in). It really illustrated how non-existant the safety component of F1 cars back in those days was by today's standards.

It wasn't until the late 1980's that drivers were able to withstand a crash at high speed and then a serious fire, such as Berger's accident in a Ferrari at Imola's Tamburello corner in 1989. He crashed at 290kmph straight into the wall, the car slid to a stop and then burst into flames seconds afterwards with Berger strapped in and unconcious, but relatively uninjured in the car. Quick response from the track fire crews prevented him from sustaining any serious burns.
It was this accident which prompted F1 management to revise the fuel tanks of the cars, removing them from the sidepods and implementing the less likely to puncture fuel bag technology.

Below are photos of what was left of Villeneuve's car in 1982 at Zolder and Berger's car in 1989 at Imola just after coming to a rest and bursting into flames. The fire was put out less than 30 seconds after this photo was taken.

 

Here are some more photos from Schumi's shunt.

 

They've clinched both.

Gary

 

He looks shaken, but not stirred. Thank God hes good and walking !!

 

lol.

 

They are safer, no question, but fatal crashes can still happen. Diniz almost got killed in Nuerburgring when the rollbar broke. Thereafter they changed that design, but somebody could still get killed in a crash like that if the rollbar digs into the grass and the car lands on the driver's head. Michael had a similar accident a few years ago in Melbourne.

And Michael was lucky to survive last year's Sao Paulo race where he slid dangerously close to a bulldozer. A few meters to the side and he would have lost his head.

Or remember the F1 driver who got killed by the fire extinguisher of a marshall that crashed into his face? Freak accidents can and do happen.

Just because it has been over ten years doesn't mean it couldn't happen again.

 

I totally agree with this comment, freak accidents happen and I dismiss the following by Big Red:

"If you knew how you would die, im sure you would stay in bed that day. End of the day, you need to live your life...to the fullest, you can die just by walking down the street now a days."

He seems to have lived his life in an F1 car to its fullest... and all I am saying is if Michael has proved to himself and to the world he is the best at driving F1 cars then now he should take his game to a different level and try to make the impact to the race in other ways. We hear the great Jean Todds and Ross Browns who have masterminded this game and put every other F1 team at a disadvantage. Was it F1 in France where Ferrari pitted 4 times and won the race in front of Renaults. May be other drivers couldn't have pulled it off as Michael did in his pursuit of few more second to squeeze one last splash and dash. I think he is more valuable to F1 alive with 7 WDC than dead in pursuit of the 8th.