By far the worst year in rallying history...
R.I.P Valerio and Daniela...
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By far the worst year in rallying history...
R.I.P Valerio and Daniela...
Very sad news...R.I.P Daniela, R.I.P Valerio :(
As a driver you immedeatly feel the grip so there´s no danger in having less grip. I too think it´s one of many solutions making rallying safer.Quote:
Originally Posted by tommeke_B
There are several solutions to make rallying much more safer, but nothing of this serious. A car which take fire must be unable, but every fatal accident of past weeks and months were very different, so maybe 1000 things to change. Not possible. Only thing they had together, it was on asphalt roads, but where in europe is possible to drive only on gravel?
Maybe one point could be: We give the drivers all security what possible, inside the car, sometimes outside, also with HANS system. Maybe its important to bring back to drivers mind, that our sport is still very dangerous. Maybe - I dont know, I am no driver - someone think that with that securities they can be faster and faster without problems. Road banners (Targa), Trees (Bohemia), Walls (Lucca), Bridge (France), nothing can be banned from stages.
I heard the automatic fire extinguisher system those cars have failed, so hopefully the FIA will look at this serious problem and promote the development of a new and more efficient system.
The automatic fire-extinguisher is small. It can't stop really big fire. You saw that often even plenty of extinguishers is not enough. It's not possible to bring in car a hundred kilograms heavy one and even than it can't stop the fire if for example a whole tank is torn apart. Till the cars will use petrol fuel they will burn from time to time. Even with electric cars the risk of fire is quite big (with Li-Ion batteries), CNG also isn't safe. In my opinion for fire risk it's best to use diesel engines. Diesel is very difficult to ignite itself. One thing is that it would lead to loose a lot of spectacle and spectator safety due to the sound.
The tires. I would not go into comparison with F1. It's different world. Their tyres still have way more grip than any tyres used in rallying. The safety of F1 is mostly in modern extremely safe circuits and purpose built cars. You don't need to go far to see what worse tyres do. In all asphalt WRC events they use tyres with less grip than in national championships, ERC or IRC. It's caused by the single pattern for both dry or wet surface. As a result this year in Monte Carlo in better conditions WRC cars were not faster than S2000 cars last year (stage Lucerám).
But anyway for me it's not a solution of anything because You can't stop the development. After few years those single pattern tyres will be faster than todays slicks. That is not possible to avoid. Todays road cars have better tyres than rally cars twenty years a go. Everything naturally gets better just the men driving are still same. It's difficult sure. Maybe a more radical solution can make more - like to use just one tyre set for whole day or even whole rally.
There are three main points in question:
One is the safety measures. All that are applied are OK, but surely there can be more applied. Just as an example, the main reason of fire in most circumstances is oil from broken gearbox, differential or motor on hot exhaust pipe. There are no precautions for this, nor do the extinguishing systems send any liquid there.
The second has to do with speeds. Modern rally cars move at a pace no average person can handle. Even "fast operating" persons have difficulty operating in the pace of a Saxo A6, not to mention the extraordinary pace of a S2000. One of the main reasons that pace has increased so much is the asphalt tyres. To my opinion it is mandatory that grip gets reduced and that tyres become more progressive and with much higher maximum slip angle than the 2 or 3 degrees that have now. For those that regard it more dangerous, I say that I do not have any problem driving my A6 on Toyos R1R instead of my rally Michelins and Dunlops. In fact, I find it safer and more fun. Of course the car is slower, but it is also more progressive and friendly and if something bad happens, it will happen with about 5-15 kmh less.
The third has to do with the organisers and the safety measures they take about dangerous points. Breen's accident could have been avoided if the organiser had observed that the road banner was wrongly made and had done something about it. This cannot happen in a large scale, but surely there are few points in every rally that are very easily spotted as extremely dangerous. For example, just yesterday I was driving through the Acropolis SS Drosohori and I saw the points that, after FIA drivers demand, the organiser has put road banners. There not many points, just the ones that the banner is absolutely necessary. But this can save a life.
Sad news...R.I.P.
I'd like to pay attention that rally is very specific sport. It doesn't have leagues, qualifications etc.
Everybody can sit rather immediatelly into S2k car. Isn't it also the reason of crashes and tragedies? Rally allow to skip any steps and drive anything your want, only because you have money.
Shortly, I'd like to see rally more like to boxing. I beleive nobody will go to fight Klichko even he is billionere. You must do a lot of step by steps, achieve next level and then only to drive on faster machinery.
I'd like to pay attention that rally is very specific sport. It doesn't have leagues, qualifications etc.
Everybody can sit rather immediatelly into S2k car. Isn't it also the reason of crashes and tragedies? Rally allow to skip any steps and drive anything your want, only because you have money.
Shortly, I'd like to see rally more like to boxing. I beleive nobody will go to fight Klichko even he is billionere. You must do a lot of step by steps, achieve next level and then only to drive on faster machinery.