Japanese Grand Prix 2014, Suzuka - Race 15/19

Ok so lets ditch all the rules right "Motorsport is dangerous" so any air of caution is pointless Magic?

Motorsport is dangerous however there are still as many safety precautions as deemed reasonable. The clear correct call given the conditions and location of the incident was a safety car, heck I have seen safety cars called in complete dry conditions for less...
 
#BIANCHI "It is being operated on for a hematoma to the head (...) We must probably wait 24 hours to see the evolution" , reached by telephone by France 3, the father of French driver Jules Bianchi confirms the severity of the accident.

According to here.
 
m4rk84 said:
Ok so lets ditch all the rules right "Motorsport is dangerous" so any air of caution is pointless Magic?

Motorsport is dangerous however there are still as many safety precautions as deemed reasonable. The clear correct call given the conditions and location of the incident was a safety car, heck I have seen safety cars called in complete dry conditions for less...
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There were double waved yellows for the Sutil incident as there were workers on the circuit. It means slow down and prepare to stop. Bianchi didn't.

How do you legislate against people ignoring instructions from the clerk of the course?
 
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Vertigo1 said:
Totally agree with you but will he? Is anyone in a position to take him to task over this? Is there any procedure under which the race director's actions can be investigated? I honestly have no idea about this.
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Well at best he's got a boss too (whether he reports directly to Jean Todt or someone else) but if the Japanese police are collecting evidence they might well want to speak to him. I'm not saying a criminal investigation is warranted of course (but then I don't know the first thing about Japanese law) but I'm sure somebody will want to hear Charlie's reasoning.
 
MagicBoy said:
There were double waved yellows for the Sutil incident as there were workers on the circuit. It means slow down and prepare to stop. Bianchi didn't.
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So, on a worsening track with many drivers on intermediates, you have double-waved yellows at the scene of an accident. If anything this is more likely to cause an accident as drivers will see the double yellows and step on the anchors, increasing the chances of losing control.

What you need in this situation is to slow everyone right down, regardless of where they are on track, which is the job of the SC.
 
MagicBoy said:
There were double waved yellows for the Sutil incident as there were workers on the circuit. It means slow down and prepare to stop. Bianchi didn't.
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How do you know he never slowed down? Cars spin off in all sorts of funny ways in heavy rain, double-yellows is still race conditions.

Double-yellows was the wrong decision it should have been an instant safety car. I even thought as much at the time.
 
Ryan-3 said:
#BIANCHI "It is being operated on for a hematoma to the head (...) We must probably wait 24 hours to see the evolution" , reached by telephone by France 3, the father of French driver Jules Bianchi confirms the severity of the accident.

According to here.
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They also say the FIA will not be releasing footage of the crash because the images are deemed to be too violent. Eek.
 
Uncle Petey said:
I have to say that when they were attending to Sutil's car, I was thinking how crazy it was for the marshalls to be standing right in the path of any car that could potentially go off at the same spot.

Didn't even think of the JCB being a massive danger at the time.
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Raises question regarding the whole situation of double yellows in those conditions really. It was just by pure chance that he didn't crash through a team of marshalls in his path, they were all there around the JCB.

Regardless of the JCB being there it wasn't safe to be on track in those conditions like they were.

F1 has been chancing it's arm with the whole recovery of vehicles/debris situation for years really, we've seen marshalls falling over in front of cars as well as other near misses. I'm certainly not saying bring a safety car out for every single accident but either the drivers need to take Yellow flags more seriously with strict penalties or the FIA are going to have to force some rules such as speed limits in sectors with accidents. Probably doable using whatever kit they use to enforce DRS.
 
MagicBoy said:
No. They've raced in much worse. Adelaide '89, Japan '07 just off the top of my head.

F1 is a dangerous sport, and it's supposed to be that way. It's only in the last 30 years it has been relatively safe where drivers mostly walk away from destroyed cars. In the 60s and 70s there were typically a couple of fatal accidents per season. After that it was '82 then '86 (although in private testing) and the awful Imola '94 weekend.
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Indeed. Hamilton even said that when he won in Silverstone 2008 the conditions were far worse and everyone was spinning off the track. I see there being no difference between that and here too, in fact Silverstone 2003 and even Interlagos in 1993 were worse, not to mention DC's grid pile up at Spa in 1998.

There have been far far worse and more dangerous situations where things have been fine but as the cars are much easier to drive nowadays, they seem to be a lot more carefree and tend to drive much faster through yellow flags than what they used to do.
 
Varsh said:
Indeed. Hamilton even said that when he won in Silverstone 2008 the conditions were far worse and everyone was spinning off the track. I see there being no difference between that and here too, in fact Silverstone 2003 and even Interlagos in 1993 were worse, not to mention DC's grid pile up at Spa in 1998.

There have been far far worse and more dangerous situations where things have been fine but as the cars are much easier to drive nowadays, they seem to be a lot more carefree and tend to drive much faster through yellow flags than what they used to do.
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Show me footage of a tractor being trackside on one of the most dangerous corners of the track, under double-yellow's, in heavy rain, at Silverstone03 or Spa98 and we can talk.
 
Varsh said:
Indeed. Hamilton even said that when he won in Silverstone 2008 the conditions were far worse and everyone was spinning off the track.
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Was there that weekend and it was an amazing drive from Lewis. Of particular delight to the crowd was how often Massa chucked it off the track :)
 
m4rk84 said:
How do you know he never slowed down? Cars spin off in all sorts of funny ways in heavy rain, double-yellows is still race conditions.

Double-yellows was the wrong decision it should have been an instant safety car. I even thought as much at the time.
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It stands to reason, otherwise there wouldn't have been an accident.

Anything said today is just well reasoned speculation at best. Time to wait on the FIA and organisers.

I'm off to make some lunch, I'm done with this thread for today.
 
Sky now reporting that the hospital have said he's undergoing surgery following a serious head injury and will then be transferred to intensive care.
 
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