Melbourne's final corner run-off tweaked

[ShiftingGears]

Melbourne's final corner run-off tweaked

By Jonathan Noble Monday, February 26th 2007, 10:43 GMT


Australian Grand Prix organisers have made revisions to the run-off area at Albert Park's final corner in a bid to avoid a repeat of the kind of accidents Michael Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya suffered last year.

Schumacher and Montoya both retired after running wide across the kerbs at the last corner during the 2006 race.

They hit bumps in the grass at the turn - Schumacher's car then being bounced sideways into the wall, while Montoya's simply shut down as a result of the impact.

Those accidents have led to a rethink at Albert Park, with the run-off area now being fitted with a flat synthetic turf behind the kerbs instead of the normal grass.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/56950


What is the point/advantage of this synthetic turf, exactly? Another bad decision from the organisers. If drivers can't keep the cars on the road, then they pay the price for it, end of story!

[Robinho]

why bother, Schumi and Montoya aren't there anymore so there is no risk of anyone making that sort of loser mistake

seriously, if its dangerous to run off the track and could end your race then you should drive accordingly, if you are willing to take that risk then you also suffer the consequence, taking the element of risk away makes it far too easy, allowing drivers to cross the limit without the pain of not finishing the race

[airshifter]

When you lose sight of safety it's always a bad thing.

Based on the opinions above, it would be acceptable to have a cliff on the edge of the track. After all, they are supposed to stay on the track.

[Robinho]

When you lose sight of safety it's always a bad thing.

Based on the opinions above, it would be acceptable to have a cliff on the edge of the track. After all, they are supposed to stay on the track.

not at all, the risk i referred to was the possibility of damaging the car so you could not continue at that pace, or even, heaven forbid, retire due to pushing too hard.

the incidents referred to were not especially dangerous, its not an especially high speed corner and neither Montoya nor Schumacher were in any more danger of being injured than if they had had a minor off at many of the other corners at any other circuit, but by further sanitising the little danger left in the sport to avoid damaging cars again allows the drivers to driver at or above the limit of their car without fear of the consequences to their race, their car or themselves.

i personaly don't think they have made this move inresponse to a safety concern,b ut to let drivers get away with their mistakes, and why should they, if they are not in danger.

if they were serious about the safety they would move the wall back by 60ft and put in a gravel trap or tarmac runoff, or move to a non-street Tilke circuit.

[Big Ben]

The damned grass. I bet it purposely ruined the race for MS and JPM. They need there a more objective material that wouldn't pick up drivers, smash them to the wall and interfere in the championship.
i can see the track of the future, it will be a huge parking space and the track will be painted on the surface.

[K-Pu]

I remember when we talked about this... last year.

Sir Jackie Stewart was talking about safety issues because in his opinion Schumacher took too many risks and that´s not good.

And my opinion was that you should take only the risks you can manage, and if you´re driving above your skill or above the car´s possibilities, you´ll probably have problems, like going off the track, hitting another car, having an accident... and the only one to blame would be yourself.
And then we have the issue abou safety at the track. Are tracks prepared for accidents? IMO, yes. Run off areas, wheel barriers (3-wheel depth, and they´re fixed with chains) and whatever. Of course there are places where you can have a serious accident. For example:
Remember Interlagos 2003. Webber loses it, spins and hits the wall. Car parts on the track, and then it comes Alonso. He hasn´t solwed down, he hits one of Webber´s wheels and spears into the wall, then he´s launched against the opposite wall. Safety works, imagine where would Alonso be if he had this accident in 1994...
What I´m trying to say is that safety on track is enough. But if they´re trying to put a 2 square miles run of area next to each corner... It´s like the Nurburgring last chicane. The FIA puts these "things" (bolardos, in Spanish) to avoid pilots cuting the chicane. And what do they do? Smash them. After a few pilots have run over them, it´s safe for the rest to take the same path. Now there are no "things" and you can "semi-cut" the chicane with no risk of damaging your car.
Another example. Magny Cours, the last chicane. The kerbs are "powerful". We saw Tiago Monteiro fly in 2005, and some cars breaking down due to the kerbs. If a pilot takes too much kerb to take the chicane faster, he´s taking the risk of breaking something in the car.
And the we go to the same point as Robinho. It´s not neccesary to put a mine field instead of a run off area, but if you take away everything that "encloses" the track, the fastest line may not be the usual one, because it goes "semi-cutting" a chicane, or maybe you can risk whatever you want without risking anything because in case of going off the track, you´ll find neverending fields of salvation. Oh, and they won´t even put gravel on these fields, because that would trap the cars, and if things go wrong, they can roll over.

As Eu said, then race in a parking with the track painted on it. Then we have that Las Vegas GP, seen by some as the worst GP in history...

Conclusion: Drivers should take risks, drive to the limit, but if they cross the line, they should find themselves out of the race.

[luvracin]

At Montreal, Speedchannel was calling the wall on the final corner - Champions Wall - after all the champs that had hit it trying to squeeze an extra tenth out of a lap.

The final corner at Melbourne should be similar - ie, a challenge that can have car damaging consequences. Although the lumpy grass is just downright dangerous - I agree with smoothing out the area.

[RJL25]

From a drivers perspective, i think they like slightly dangerous corners! Eu Rouge (or however you spell it) at Spa is an incredibly dangerous corner, but the drivers love it! Here in Australia, just about every V8 Supercar driver will tell you that they're fravorite corner is turn 8 at Adelaide which is basically a 230km/h sweeper (thats damn fast or a touring car) that has absolutely NO run off whatsoever, it goes race track -> wall and lots and lots of drivers have destroyed their cars and hurt themselfs by screwing up on this corner, yet they all absolutely love it!

[grantb4]

And that's exactly where they should be holding the F1 race, not Albert Park.

[cosmicpanda]

They haven't changed the actual corner, have they? Just the surface of the runoff. I really don't see why this is such a big issue.