Justin Wilson Badly Hurt.
Discussion
Being reported that Justin has suffered head injuries Pocono.
A piece of debris from a crash in front of him hit him on the head or in the face as he tried to avoid the accident debris. He was flown to hospital & one report says that Justin is unconscious & unresponsive.
Prayers & thoughts to his family.
A piece of debris from a crash in front of him hit him on the head or in the face as he tried to avoid the accident debris. He was flown to hospital & one report says that Justin is unconscious & unresponsive.
Prayers & thoughts to his family.
He's been hit on the head by Sage Karams nosecone when sage hit the wall after a spin.
Fingers crossed for Justin.
Just seen the footage, the nose crash box hit his head and the top of his cars nose at high speed and bounced about 100ft in the air
Fingers crossed for Justin.
Just seen the footage, the nose crash box hit his head and the top of his cars nose at high speed and bounced about 100ft in the air
Edited by Blaster72 on Monday 24th August 06:49
Vaud said:
That's a horrible horrible crash an order of magnitude worse than Massa
Yup, Massa was hit by a titanium spring weighing 800 or so grammes. A nose cone is basically the crash structure of a formula car, very hefty bit of kit. I just saw the footage aswell and if Justin pulls thru it's nothing short of a miracle I'm afraid.
Openwheelers on ovals are insanity security wise, way too fast and basically zero run off areas.
Speed Badger said:
If anyone can pull through it's Justin. One of the most determined characters in motorsport, fingers crossed.
Lovely guy to talk with as well. I spent about 30 mins talking with him at Goodwood 2003 when he was at Minardi (IIRC). Everyone was clambering for Montoya, etc, but Justin was just stood by his car chatting to anyone (he was less well known at that point). Very down to earth.As I said in the indycar thread, really saddened by this. I invested in him to get into F1 so have followed him from a distance over the years. Really wish I'd gone to one of the shareholders agm's at Brands now, was painfully close to getting myself organised for it the last year it was held but didn't manage it.
Watched him a couple of weeks ago battling for first, and given the right car he could win anywhere. I fear the size of the guy kept him out of Le Mans or the wec, but I hope he pulls through this and doesn't give up and takes his talent elsewhere. Never got the car he deserved.
Fingers crossed for the big man.
Watched him a couple of weeks ago battling for first, and given the right car he could win anywhere. I fear the size of the guy kept him out of Le Mans or the wec, but I hope he pulls through this and doesn't give up and takes his talent elsewhere. Never got the car he deserved.
Fingers crossed for the big man.
If canopies were a simple solution, I think we'd have them already to be honest. Would also introduce new problems to be solved. Main one is the risk of increasing the time it takes to attend to an injured driver. A canopy would have done nothing to prevent James Hinchcliffe's injury at Indy, yet the added delay of releasing one could well have been the difference between a negative and positive outcome in that incident, given how touch and go the situation was.
Also the far simpler question of how to keep them clean? A wiper system is a non-starter, as you'd risk fluid finding its way to the track, so how do you ensure vision at all times? Only takes an engine failure ahead and suddenly you have a canopy covered in oil and an instantly blinded driver (or pack of drivers) charging along at 200mph+, which is clearly not going to end well. Given engine failures happen far more often than this sort of accident, you'd be introducing a whole new risk of more frequent incidents to avoid the risk of far less frequent one, serious and upsetting though it undoubtedly is. Not sure the implementaion would be anything as simple as people think.
Also the far simpler question of how to keep them clean? A wiper system is a non-starter, as you'd risk fluid finding its way to the track, so how do you ensure vision at all times? Only takes an engine failure ahead and suddenly you have a canopy covered in oil and an instantly blinded driver (or pack of drivers) charging along at 200mph+, which is clearly not going to end well. Given engine failures happen far more often than this sort of accident, you'd be introducing a whole new risk of more frequent incidents to avoid the risk of far less frequent one, serious and upsetting though it undoubtedly is. Not sure the implementaion would be anything as simple as people think.
hornet said:
If canopies were a simple solution, I think we'd have them already to be honest. Would also introduce new problems to be solved. Main one is the risk of increasing the time it takes to attend to an injured driver. A canopy would have done nothing to prevent James Hinchcliffe's injury at Indy, yet the added delay of releasing one could well have been the difference between a negative and positive outcome in that incident, given how touch and go the situation was.
Also the far simpler question of how to keep them clean? A wiper system is a non-starter, as you'd risk fluid finding its way to the track, so how do you ensure vision at all times? Only takes an engine failure ahead and suddenly you have a canopy covered in oil and an instantly blinded driver (or pack of drivers) charging along at 200mph+, which is clearly not going to end well. Given engine failures happen far more often than this sort of accident, you'd be introducing a whole new risk of more frequent incidents to avoid the risk of far less frequent one, serious and upsetting though it undoubtedly is. Not sure the implementaion would be anything as simple as people think.
LMP cars seem to be doing OK. Also the far simpler question of how to keep them clean? A wiper system is a non-starter, as you'd risk fluid finding its way to the track, so how do you ensure vision at all times? Only takes an engine failure ahead and suddenly you have a canopy covered in oil and an instantly blinded driver (or pack of drivers) charging along at 200mph+, which is clearly not going to end well. Given engine failures happen far more often than this sort of accident, you'd be introducing a whole new risk of more frequent incidents to avoid the risk of far less frequent one, serious and upsetting though it undoubtedly is. Not sure the implementaion would be anything as simple as people think.
PowerslideSWE said:
Yup, Massa was hit by a titanium spring weighing 800 or so grammes. A nose cone is basically the crash structure of a formula car, very hefty bit of kit.
I did wonder about that -- it's the crash structure but it's carbon fibre so it's light. I saw an estimate of about 10 pounds, so about 5kg. Is a titanium spring really only 800g? I'd assumed a fair bit more. The nosecone is physically large and light, so should slow down quickly in the air, unlike a spring.
Really hoping he comes through this, I hate those gut wrenching Sunday nights going to bed knowing the news we might wake up to especially when it's a Brit and/or a driver you follow.
As to the accident itself, regardless of the weight or size of the nosecone that hit him, the damage done is going to be entirely dependant on exactly how hard and where exactly it's hit him so I'm not sure any comparisons can be drawn against the weight of the spring that hit Massa. In theory it could be anything from a very light glancing blow that barely scratched the paint on the helmet before hitting the rollhoop and going airborne, right up to the entire weight hitting the very front of the helmet and taking all the force. Given his condition it's obviously not the former and the fact that he's still alive would probably suggest it's not the latter, so we can only hope that it was towards the glancing blow end of the spectrum and slight enough that the damage isn't too severe and he can make a full recovery.
As to the accident itself, regardless of the weight or size of the nosecone that hit him, the damage done is going to be entirely dependant on exactly how hard and where exactly it's hit him so I'm not sure any comparisons can be drawn against the weight of the spring that hit Massa. In theory it could be anything from a very light glancing blow that barely scratched the paint on the helmet before hitting the rollhoop and going airborne, right up to the entire weight hitting the very front of the helmet and taking all the force. Given his condition it's obviously not the former and the fact that he's still alive would probably suggest it's not the latter, so we can only hope that it was towards the glancing blow end of the spectrum and slight enough that the damage isn't too severe and he can make a full recovery.
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