Motorsport Off Topic Thread

Soldato
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Yep but that was refuelling related which I'm trying to rule out.
Just FYI Kovalainen's fire wasn't refuelling related. It was caused by a collision between him an Buemi.


Race Report said:
Kovalainen and Buemi made contact in the final sector of the lap, with the latter spinning around in front of the Toro Rosso, who was quick to avoid a head-on collision. Kovalainen's car suffered a cracked fuel tank pressure release valve and he limped back to the pit lane, the rear of his Lotus catching fire during the final few turns. Kovalainen aborted the pit entry, but did not make it much further as his car was consumed by the fire. Kovalainen stopped on the main straight and got out of his car to extinguish the fire himself after members of the Williams team handed him a fire extinguisher.[35] As Kovalainen was off the racing line, yellow flags were waved in the final corners instead of a safety car deployment.
I'd say that makes it count.
 
Soldato
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I'm not sure it was a fuel fire. Buemi just lightly tapped Kovalainen's right-rear, but the car was struggling to get going again after the spin. The fire certainly didn't look like fuel though, it started around the right-side exhaust exit, further back than any fuel line and was already burning black. The exhausts were clearly too hot before that, as even in the braking zone before his spin there were blue flames constantly coming from them - that with the slow recovery was probably enough to set the surrounding bodywork on fire.
 

JRS

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Soldato
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Hardly a "driver trapped in blazing inferno after big smash" situation though was it?

Well hell, if that's the only measure then no crash in the last decade (at least) would count because marshals are - usually - much quicker on the scene these days with gear to put fires out.

I haven't heard anyone argue against Ericsson in the French GP practice this year yet as far as post-crash fires go. Is that 'cause we all missed post #10721 or is it 'cause we all missed watching the French GP practice this year? He wasn't trapped in the car obviously, because he wasn't upside down. But his car caught fire pretty bloody quickly, and even with some reasonably smart work from the marshals it crisped up the engine cover pretty good before they got it out. Had he been upside down...well, we'll never really know will we? But it'd be hard to argue the case for any impediment to getting out quickly in such a scenario IMO.

What really gets me is we have people saying 'halo is a great thing, life saver etc' ignoring the potential it has for trapping a driver in the cockpit by saying 'well, that doesn't happen very often'. Remind me again how often a driver in F1 (or, indeed, other open wheel categories) has had a tap on the head that the halo in any way could have prevented? It's doubtful how effective it would have been in an incident like the one Massa had in '09 for example. I guess you could say Henry Surtees' F2 accident. Am I ignoring a wealth of other crashes and incidents where it would have made a huge difference to the driver?

I'm still unconvinced that it's not a solution desperately in search of a problem. But, it'll be here to stay unless we do ever get someone trapped underneath one.
 
Soldato
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What really gets me is we have people saying 'halo is a great thing, life saver etc' ignoring the potential it has for trapping a driver in the cockpit by saying 'well, that doesn't happen very often'. Remind me again how often a driver in F1 (or, indeed, other open wheel categories) has had a tap on the head that the halo in any way could have prevented? It's doubtful how effective it would have been in an incident like the one Massa had in '09 for example. I guess you could say Henry Surtees' F2 accident. Am I ignoring a wealth of other crashes and incidents where it would have made a huge difference to the driver?

I'm still unconvinced that it's not a solution desperately in search of a problem. But, it'll be here to stay unless we do ever get someone trapped underneath one.
In all probability it would have saved Justin Wilson too, and might have played a part in saving Dan Wheldon (though given his roll-bar was gone I guess with those forces that that was pretty much unsurvivable). Then there are the two instances in F1 and F2 this year which were prevented by the halo.

Several near missed too - Brundle at Interlagos, Castroneves in Pocono, Raikkonen in Austria, Coulthard at Melbourne and so on. We're talking inches or miraculously avoiding injuries that the halo might have prevented.

I don't think anyone is saying it's perfect, as it clearly isn't, but on facts alone the risk of a head injury is undoubtedy higher than from that of a fire. I doubt we'll ever get to a point where there's a happy medium, but if not you've got to play the chance card.
 
Man of Honour
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JRS

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Soldato
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Honestly, they'd be better off just bringing the one tyre compound to the races now (well, one dry compound plus inters and full wets). Confusion solved, gets rid of the BS 'must use both compounds' rule, reduces costs.
 
Caporegime
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Honestly, they'd be better off just bringing the one tyre compound to the races now (well, one dry compound plus inters and full wets). Confusion solved, gets rid of the BS 'must use both compounds' rule, reduces costs.
Some tracks would be no stops and others would be 3 stops. They can't make a single tyre be competitive and that lasts for every track.
 
Soldato
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Supersofts (Dry), Inters, Wets. That'll do. Use them how you feel.

I also think a good one would be unlimited fuel flow, but max of say 100kg. Burn it all early to be light at the end, or make it last. Turn the engine up to 11, fight for an overtake or to keep someone behind. Might start seeing drivers pushing as much as possible again.
 
Associate
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Not sure where the confusion is, i think numbering simplifies it for fans surely? Rather then the chance of people mis-undertanding names through loss in translation or interpretation, its now a number? 1 for Hardest -> 5 for Softest?

Unless i'm missing something? If you have 2, 3 and 4 allocated then you know for that event 2 is the hardest available, 4 is the softest and 3 is in-between?
 
Soldato
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They only went halfway towards simplifying it. If they'd aligned the colours then it would have been very simple for the casual fans to understand. Instead, some fans will now be left thinking that soft were yellow last race and now they're white etc.

Casual fans can't see the numbers when the cars are going round - they need consistency of colour too, aligned with the soft, medium hard.

F1 is so, so stupid sometimes. People are actually paid good wages to invent this nonsense that then fans across the world can instantly design better.
 
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