2014 Russian Grand Prix Thread

[journeyman racer]

Absolutely the most stupidly dangerous, deliberate thing I have ever seen anyone do. Of course, while still wishing the best for Michael, his swerve on Hakkinen on the fastest part of the track at Spa was pretty damm stupid too and he could have killed them both very easily.

You know, the drivers did dumb things back in the golden years too, though I don't recall anything that Clark, Gurney or Stewart did. I think those were the real drivers and everyone since has had to live up to that.

Alain Prost spun off at Imola on the formation lap.

Senna crashed at Monaco while almost a lap ahead.

Perhaps the biggest gaffe was JR Hildebrand crashing on the last turn of the Indy 500.

Some rednheck fan steals the pace car and drives around Talladega while the race is going on!

Senna had checked out at Adelaide, but slams into the back of (I believe) Brundle in low visibility. Many people want to hold Senna up as some sort of god, but he made many dumb mistakes, sometimes as a result of pushing too hard. You know, if Senna can get killed, maybe this sport is so difficult that even the very best drivers can mess up.

So, if you have Prost flying off on the formation lap, and Senna crashing with no other cars in sight, perhaps it is time to give the other drivers some slack when they do stupid things. That or stop holding those two in such high regard.

Then, there's the tragic stupid stuff that's not even funny. Jackie Ickx was involved in fivefatal incidents. One of them was when Stefan Belof tried to pass Ickx around the outside of Eau Rouge, with predictably fatal results. At leMans 1970, Ickx hit a barrier at night and killed a marshall that was sleeping where he was not supposed to be. In both cases, someone did something stupid and got themselves killed. there's more too, but I can't remember it all right now. I'm still on my first cup of coffee.

It may require another thread to discuss in detail. But in all the conversations I've had over the years. There's a grey line about "accidents" , which I've attempted to make black & white. For no reason other than my own interest in motorsport.

But I think there's a distinct difference between a lapse in concentration, getting caught up in the heat of battle and making a misjudgement, making an innocent mistake which looks clumsy and blatant carelessness and negligence.

While I'm at it. Along with my top three. I'd also like to include Anthony Davidson at Le Mans, in the LMP Peugeot, punting the class leading Corvette out of the race. Ridiculous. Especially when trying to justify it afterwards. What a ********. Don't anyone ever lament him missing out on a lengthy GP career. A brainless spud.