We almost saw ourselves a beheading!

[K-Pu]

Well... When I saw this I remembered another dangerous crash:

Jos Verstappen, Martin Brundle, Eric Bernard and... Irvine IIRC at Interlagos in 1994. Verstappen wheel did actually hit Brundle´s head, but nothing happened. It could have been a fatal accident, but luckyly it didn´t happen anything.

Wurz has been lucky too, because, as you said before, he could have lost his hand though losing his head would be less possible. And you can´t do much to avoid these kind of things, because F1 cars will never have roof.

At least DC admitted it was his fault instead of blaming everyone else...

[SteveA]

And you can´t do much to avoid these kind of things, because F1 cars will never have roof.

They could build up the protection around the driver though - new rules about minimum distance between (any) edge of the steering "wheel" and the top of the cockpit. It won't improve the look of the cars, but it might reduce the risk of injury in such a situation.

[raikk]

[race aficionado]

Boy was it a close call.

hand, head . . . . thanks goodness only a wrecked pair of cars

[Alexamateo]

Here's some video of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNHEMDaNoek

[tsarcasm]

how about a steel cage around their head, large enough to rotate the head and helmet, linked to the survival cell via. the cockpit rails and the air intake, removable w/a knob for marshals or pyro-bolts in an emergency

[wmcot]

It was a very scary moment. I didn't realize the full danger at first until seeing the replay. The problem is that you could modify the cars to prevent this close call from happening again, but then some other freak accident would occur requiring more modifications...and on and on.

I'm sure DC didn't have a clue what the outcome of his attempted move would be. Any driver could have done the same or similar thing in a different situation.

Looking back on some of the fatal incidents in F1, the fatalities often occur in accidents that don't look too unusual. At Imola 1994, Senna's accident didn't look any worse than Barrichello's, yet Rubens was only mildly injured while Senna was killed. JV's crash at Melbourne looked terrible as he was launched into the wall and his car disintegrated, while Ralf at Indy 2004 didn't look as bad yet Ralf suffered broken vertebrae while JV was not injured badly. Even the crash that killed Jochen Rindt at Monza didn't look that bad from the cameras.

The problem is that there is no way to protect a driver from a loose piece of suspension, tire, body part, etc. hitting him in just the right, freakish way causing a fatality. To do that, you would have to remove the driver from the car and have them drive remotely like a Playstation game. As long as there are drivers in the cars, there will always be the potential for a fatal accident.

[XR8]

After looking at the youtube video I think that Wurz could have been a bit smarter as D.C. was nearly all the way alongside him as they contacted as DCs left front wheel made contact with Wurzs right front wheel! Hardly a mistake only by DC!

[Whyzars]

Anyone want to take a guess at how fast DC's car was going as it shot across Wurz's 'bow'?

[ShiftingGears]

After looking at the youtube video I think that Wurz could have been a bit smarter as D.C. was nearly all the way alongside him as they contacted as DCs left front wheel made contact with Wurzs right front wheel! Hardly a mistake only by DC!

I'm agreeing with your post here. Wurz gave no space at all to Coulthard, and sometimes giving room, not a lot, but just enough, is part of good racecraft. I was at the track cheering Coulthard because he was right alongside Wurz and I thought he would make it, but then, BAM! Wurz should've conceded that he lost the corner, I reckon. Some of us here are playing the role of armchair critics critisising any attempt at an on-track pass, and its a bit hypocritical, in my view. But MAN was Coulthards car close to his head!