Formula One

[Diamond Dave]

For the coverage we had here, I had no idea any of this happened.

I heard about it from a twitter feed not long after the actual accident. I sure hope he is going to pull through.

The FIA’s post-race statement in full:
"On lap 42, Adrian Sutil lost control of his car, spun and hit the tyre barrier on the outside of Turn 7. The marshals displayed double waved yellow flags before the corner to warn drivers of the incident. A recovery vehicle was dispatched in order to lift the car and take it to a place of safety behind the guard rail. While this was being done the driver of car 17, Jules Bianchi, lost control of his car, travelled across the run-off area and hit the back of the tractor.

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2014/10/16448.html

[terry.sc]

No, they were under waved double yellows, which means slow down and be prepared to stop. The green flags are at the marshal point right after the scene of the accident, to let the drivers know the next section is clear.

Could be just me, Terry, but I think the green flag was shown a bit too early...

Alex

Even though they can see the green flags well before, the green section doesn't start until they actually pass the marshals post. So the drivers should not have been accelerating until they were past the accident.

[Incredible_Serious]

Even though they can see the green flags well before, the green section doesn't start until they actually pass the marshals post. So the drivers should not have been accelerating until they were past the accident.

I agree with your theory, Terry... but I would guess (not currently being a professional F1 driver) that most F1 drivers would start to accelerate once they saw the green flag - a bit like people accelerate when they go from a lower speed zone to a higher speed zone on public roads as they near the sign starting that higher speed zone. Does that make sense? Hope so....

No matter what else comes up in discussion, I hope all the best for Jules Bianchi, and hope he can make a recovery of some sort fairly quickly.

Alex

[terry.sc]

Suzuka seems to be a good time to post my list of why I think Formula One is loosing popularity:

- Driving in the rain. For God's sake, up to the 2000nds it was fine to drive in heavy rain, none of this pace car and red flag nonsense! Develop better rain tires and tell teams to have cars that behave decently in the rain! Have circuits invest in better drainage, too.

It's all to do with cost. When there were two tyre manufacturers the tyre companies were spending a fortune developing tyres for every circumstance, including the 'monsoon' tyres for really wet weather. Due to the cost all the tyre companies pulled out and Pirellis deal means the teams are paying for the tyres. So the options are the races are slowed down or stopped in very heavy rain, or the teams have to pay thousands for Pirelli to build and haul around the world a container load of tyres that might never be used at all.

- Track limits. Perhaps drivers would be less inclined to leave track limits without those HUGE tarmac run-off areas . Just use gravel or grass.

Good point, if it wasn't for the gravel being replaced by tarmac then Hamilton would have been out of the race considering he ran off across the tarmac three times during the race.

- "Causing a collision"-warning. This needs to die. Collisions can and will happen in racing. Now I can understand taking action against people who willfully run into people or willfully push them off the track, but hearing this every single time there is contact? Screw that.

You don't hear it every time there is a collision, and there is a world of difference between incidents being investigated and drivers actually being penailsed for it. Got to at least threaten the possibility of a penalty so the drivers don't throw their car into a corner to overtake and hope the other driver backs off to avoid a crash. It's been a good few races since someone actually got punished for it.

[terry.sc]

I agree with your theory, Terry... but I would guess (not currently being a professional F1 driver) that most F1 drivers would start to accelerate once they saw the green flag - a bit like people accelerate when they go from a lower speed zone to a higher speed zone on public roads as they near the sign starting that higher speed zone. Does that make sense? Hope so....

Of course the difference is on public roads there aren't dozens of officials watching our every move on the road, with most if it also being videoed so it can be checked.

I was once with someone driving along a road that went from 60 to 30, the lower limit started just before a bend in the road, and just around the corner was a policeman with a speed camera. Just like most people the driver started slowing when we reached the sign, not making sure the car was below 30 before the lower limit sign was reached. They were busy as more cars were being pulled over than let past.

[RC10resto]

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/yes-a-green-flag-was-waving-but-know-the-whole-story/

[Incredible_Serious]

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/yes-a-green-flag-was-waving-but-know-the-whole-story/

Interestingly, that story said pretty much what I was feeling, but based on facts (telemetry) and diagrams (overhead photo), rather than my tuppence....

Still sad for Jules Bianchi though....

Alex

[EvolutionRevolution]

For the coverage we had here, I had no idea any of this happened.

I heard about it from a twitter feed not long after the actual accident. I sure hope he is going to pull through.

The confusion was just as bad for those watching the full coverage. The corner in which Sutil and Bianchi crashed has no full camera coverage, so all we could see was Sutil spin out, then the tractor moves in, then we cut back to the front of the field, then we go back to the crash site a lap later and there's a lot of confusion and very little information besides that there appears to be another car in the wall and that Bianchi was out of the race together with Sutil. It then took ages before more information came through. We could see the ambulance be deployed and then the race was red-flagged, and from people's faces and reactions you could see that something bad had happened. But what happened was unclear until after the closing ceremony, with the only information being out by that point was Bianchi had spun in the same corner and had hit the tractor and was badly hurt. Only then they clarified that the car had gone underneath the tractor.

I also hope he pulls through, but with his condition listed as "critical but stable" and one of the world's top brain surgeons being flown to Japan it doesn't look too good.