Jules Bianchi Suffers Severe Head Injury

[Doc Austin]

Thats true, aquaplaning is possible in an F1 car at 200 MPH or 60 MPH, of course at 60 MPH he would have barely made the crane though.

According to telemetry, he was going 213 km/h (132mph) when he went off:

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/am...crash/?v=2&s=1

[Valve Bounce]

We had a discussion some years ago about the removal of cars from the track. I had advocated using a winch to drag a beached/damaged/crashed car off the track. However one of the members here, an active marshall , commented that would be unsafe as a rule of thumb is that another car could come off at the same location.
Under the circumstances, Sutil's car could have been winched off the track had a 4WD equipped with a winch and a Marshall deployed when the safety car was on track to slow all cars down and the area of the crash had NO cars about to come near. We are talking about seconds to attach a cable to the stricken car.

Under NO circumstances should a JCB be on the track until all cars were stopped. Who the blooming hell gave the OK for the JCB to go onto the track? This is incompetence and stupidity of the highest order, and should be the subject of an inquisition, not to mention a huge, huge fine for the Organisers of the race.
The Japanese are great sticklers for any time table, be it train or ship; but not to advance the race time or even postpone the race because of the oncoming typhoon is simply caused by not wanting to lose face. Well, somebody should draw the Organisers attention that the result of their incompetence has now resulted in a trajedy far worse than merely loss of face!
I am more than just saddened by Bianchi's injury; I am disgusted at the stupidity and incompetence of the Organisers responsible for this incident.

[Robinho]

Had it been dry it may have been reasonable to recover the vehicle under yellows, but in those conditions a stricken can should automatically cause a safety car.

[Valve Bounce]

I seem to remember other circuits have long reaching cranes [BEHIND\] the safety fence to recover stranded cars.

[AndyL]

I seem to remember other circuits have long reaching cranes [BEHIND\] the safety fence to recover stranded cars.

There was one at Suzuka, between Dunlop and the chicane I think, but apparently it couldn't reach Degner.

It would be difficult to make this a general standard I think. You'd need a lot of cranes to cover somewhere like Silverstone or Monza, and the huge runoffs at the newer circuits could make length of reach a problem.

[AndyL]

The problem we have seen over many years though is "how slow is Slowing down a bit"? Unless a set restriction is in place, drivers will always go a bit faster to not loose so much time as someone who lifts off.

Yes very true. Even the slightest lift off the throttle seems to be accepted by the stewards, that is a long-standing problem.

[Norwegian Blue]

We had a discussion some years ago about the removal of cars from the track. I had advocated using a winch to drag a beached/damaged/crashed car off the track. However one of the members here, an active marshall , commented that would be unsafe as a rule of thumb is that another car could come off at the same location.
Under the circumstances, Sutil's car could have been winched off the track had a 4WD equipped with a winch and a Marshall deployed when the safety car was on track to slow all cars down and the area of the crash had NO cars about to come near. We are talking about seconds to attach a cable to the stricken car.

Under NO circumstances should a JCB be on the track until all cars were stopped. Who the blooming hell gave the OK for the JCB to go onto the track? This is incompetence and stupidity of the highest order, and should be the subject of an inquisition, not to mention a huge, huge fine for the Organisers of the race.
The Japanese are great sticklers for any time table, be it train or ship; but not to advance the race time or even postpone the race because of the oncoming typhoon is simply caused by not wanting to lose face. Well, somebody should draw the Organisers attention that the result of their incompetence has now resulted in a trajedy far worse than merely loss of face!
I am more than just saddened by Bianchi's injury; I am disgusted at the stupidity and incompetence of the Organisers responsible for this incident.

Wouldn't having a tense cable across part of the run-off area potentially be even more dangerous? Especially if the car was immobile, the dragging would cause more debris that would need to be picked up, more danger for Marshalls etc.. Not disagreeing with you that something needs to be looked into!

[airshifter]

I'm starting to think that the best solution is also the easy solution. And it might rob us of some racing time but it would be fair to all drivers.

Simply enforce the pit speed limiter at any time a recovery vehicle has to come out from behind the wall. In the event of a track with really slow corners, set a limiter even lower if needed. Once the FIA transmit the message, cars have X seconds to comply. When the accident is cleared, drivers get a warning or countdown to when they can resume racing.

We had an incident earlier this year where marshalls were crossing the track with cars only seconds away. And in this case the speed though the area was much too high, and it endangered others as well as Jules.

[Bagwan]

Interesting point made by Sutil in an interview I just read .

He mentioned that it's not just the low light conditions that create the danger , but mentions that this combined with the bright lights on the steering wheel makes it very hard to see .


So , we have a driver in poor conditions , given a bright yellow light shining in his eyes , asking him to slow down , AT MID-POINT IN THE CORNER !

Sutil stated he was following Jules closely when he went off .
Jules must have seen the puddle that Sutil hit , as he avoided aquaplaning that lap , and made it around one last time .
Adrian's vision would have been blurred by Bianchi's car's spray , so hitting the puddle can be understood .
The rain was increasing as well , so the puddle would have been forming at that time , thus perhaps not affecting others as much , if they saw it .

This may , in part , be a safety device that was responsible .
Light level played a role , it seems .

[MrJan]

I'm starting to think that the best solution is also the easy solution. And it might rob us of some racing time but it would be fair to all drivers.

Simply enforce the pit speed limiter at any time a recovery vehicle has to come out from behind the wall. In the event of a track with really slow corners, set a limiter even lower if needed. Once the FIA transmit the message, cars have X seconds to comply. When the accident is cleared, drivers get a warning or countdown to when they can resume racing.

We had an incident earlier this year where marshalls were crossing the track with cars only seconds away. And in this case the speed though the area was much too high, and it endangered others as well as Jules.

As I said earlier, it's a system that was employed at Le Mans this year and worked very effectively. It also meant that things got cleared up that would normally be left. FOr example someone went hurtling through the gravel at one of the Mulsanne chicanes and marshals came out in the 'slow zone' to sweep up. In the past the gravel would just have stayed on the track for cars to pick up.