Deutschland rally 2016

[Mirek]

I assume also the aerodynamic door sills are made of strong carbon and thus bring something to the side impact safety. Still I'm surprised that in all the prototypes where we could see inside there was pretty common rollcage cross in the door area.

The severity of a crash is determined by how fast the object at speed (driver and car) is halted, and we are not talking a 50% speed increase in the corners here. Probably maximum 10% if even that. Wk=mv²/ 2 gives an increase in kinetic energy of 21% if the increased speed is 10%. This is not what determine life or death in a crash situation.

Also with R2-power and WRC safety you could kill someone in a sideways impact in finland towards a tree... or say that the same car in a high speed event hits a rock on the inside of the corner and it throws the car on it's side into a tree, just so that it hits the windshield.
I can guarantee that will be bye bye both driver and codriver considering how much damage there was to that area of Camili's car in Monte this year from a relatively low speed impact.

The increased speed is not what will make or break the safety situation.

I don't argue about some huge increase of risk with the new cars (although it's pretty clear there is an increase). I just wanted to point out that speaking about the speed on straights is missleading.

[itix]

I assume also the aerodynamic door sills are made of strong carbon and thus bring something to the side impact safety. Still I'm surprised that the all in prototypes where we could see inside there was pretty common rollcage cross in the door area.



I don't argue about some huge increase of risk with the new cars (although it's pretty clear there is an increase). I just wanted to point out that speaking about the speed on straights is missleading.

I don't think the increase in speed is a major factor in the safety debate.

The increase of speed is so small that the factors in the "big game" is almost irrelevant.

You can achieve much more by choosing stages well and also adapting stages.

That was what I was trying to say.

[dimviii]

Jari-Matti Latvala will tackle the upcoming Tour de Corse - Rallye de France (29 Sept - 2 Oct) without the security of a spare gearbox after one of his two allocated units failed at ADAC Rallye Deutschland for reasons that remain a mystery.

Latvala retired his Volkswagen Polo R just seven kilometres into the opening stage in Germany. He rejoined the next day and completed the rally using his spare gearbox. Under FIA component pairing regulations, which limit each top driver to just two gearboxes for the rounds in Germany and Corsica, the Finn must rely solely on this replacement unit in Corsica.

Meanwhile, the same regulations have prevented Volkswagen from opening the failed unit to investigate what went wrong, adding to concerns that the same problem could strike again.

Latvala first noticed the problem with the original gearbox when he was braking hard for a corner. "I went from sixth to fifth okay, but when I selected fourth with the [steering wheel] paddles the gearbox didn't shift down," he told wrc.com.

"I tried the emergency lever, and managed to get the lower gears, but when I tried to go back to the paddleshift it didn't work. This time the manual lever felt very solid - and I pushed it so hard it broke. I tried again on the paddle, but I heard a bang and I knew the gears were badly connected. There was a strong smell of oil and I stopped the car."

Team boss at the time Jost Capito promised an investigation to find out exactly what happened, in order to avoid similar damage occurring in the future. However, the earliest this post mortem can take place will be after the next round.

"The problem is the gearbox is sealed and linked to the rally in Corsica so we will not be able to inspect it before then," the team's technical director Francois-Xavier Demaison told wrc.com

"At this stage we don't know what the issue is. The gearbox was freshly rebuilt for this rally and there's no reason we can see why this should have happened. It came as a surprise.

"We have been through a long process of validation and we haven't experienced a similar problem, so we really hope it's a one off," he added.

http://www.wrc.com/en/wrc/news/septe...4--12-12-.html