What made Glock crash?

[Rollcage]

Looking at the footage of Glock's unfortunate crash at Suzuka, it looks like he made no attempt to make any steering input after the car started to go off - the wheel is held at 10 to 4 for the duration. Surely a driver would be trying something in those circumstances?

Looks very strange - not suggesting anything is going on, it just looks very odd.

Any ideas?

[4rephill]

Rollcage said:

Looking at the footage of Glock's unfortunate crash at Suzuka, it looks like he made no attempt to make any steering input after the car started to go off - the wheel is held at 10 to 4 for the duration. Surely a driver would be trying something in those circumstances?

Looks very strange - not suggesting anything is going on, it just looks very odd.

Any ideas?

Horrific understeer for some reason,judging by the onboard footage,no idea what caused the understeer though. As You said very odd!.

[John D.]

4rephill said:

Rollcage said:

Looking at the footage of Glock's unfortunate crash at Suzuka, it looks like he made no attempt to make any steering input after the car started to go off - the wheel is held at 10 to 4 for the duration. Surely a driver would be trying something in those circumstances?

Looks very strange - not suggesting anything is going on, it just looks very odd.

Any ideas?

Horrific understeer for some reason,judging by the onboard footage,no idea what caused the understeer though. As You said very odd!.

Almost as if the wheel was not connected to the wheels anymore? Something broke mid corner perhaps. I'm struggling to believe he just drifted off the track like that.

[khevolution]

remember that he was just getting over flu/cold so his concentration levels could of drops for a second and at the speeds he was travelling that's all it takes to go from being on the road to into a gravel trap

[4rephill]

John D. said:

4rephill said:

Rollcage said:

Looking at the footage of Glock's unfortunate crash at Suzuka, it looks like he made no attempt to make any steering input after the car started to go off - the wheel is held at 10 to 4 for the duration. Surely a driver would be trying something in those circumstances?

Looks very strange - not suggesting anything is going on, it just looks very odd.

Any ideas?

Horrific understeer for some reason,judging by the onboard footage,no idea what caused the understeer though. As You said very odd!.

Almost as if the wheel was not connected to the wheels anymore? Something broke mid corner perhaps. I'm struggling to believe he just drifted off the track like that.

Toyota are claiming that nothing broke on the car but like You, I'm struggling with it as well, It just doesn't make sense.
Hopefully Glock will be able to shed some light on it (there again,He may not know why it happened either).

[Rollcage]

John D. said:

4rephill said:

Rollcage said:

Looking at the footage of Glock's unfortunate crash at Suzuka, it looks like he made no attempt to make any steering input after the car started to go off - the wheel is held at 10 to 4 for the duration. Surely a driver would be trying something in those circumstances?

Looks very strange - not suggesting anything is going on, it just looks very odd.

Any ideas?

Horrific understeer for some reason,judging by the onboard footage,no idea what caused the understeer though. As You said very odd!.

Almost as if the wheel was not connected to the wheels anymore? Something broke mid corner perhaps. I'm struggling to believe he just drifted off the track like that.

I had thought that, but the angle of the front wheels does not change in relation to the steering wheel. Looks like he was caught out by unexpected understeer while checking something on his wheel or vectors,etc.

ETA - just goes to show - you should allways go where you are looking!

Edited by Rollcage on Saturday 3rd October 14:30

[4rephill]

I couldn't get over the BBC crew saying to Ross Brawn "You'll never crash with understeer but You will with oversteer".

My first thought was "Try telling that to Glock!".

[petergb]

A good hearty sneeze perhaps - would 'fog' his visor a bit.

[4rephill]

petergb said:

A good hearty sneeze perhaps - would 'fog' his visor a bit.

Surely snot! (sorry,couldn't resist )

[tvrforever]

I'd say that was the plank under the car acting as a sledge on the kerbs - hence the front wheels not controlling the direction of the car and no point turning the steering wheel...

[4rephill]

tvrforever said:

I'd say that was the plank under the car acting as a sledge on the kerbs - hence the front wheels not controlling the direction of the car and no point turning the steering wheel...

I'd have to see the onboard footage again, but at the point in the corner where He started to go off, I would have thought the car would have settled already from the chicane and gripped to go round the corner. Once he was on the curb on the last corner then, yes, it was pretty much game over for avoiding the accident.

As I have said, hopefully Glock himself will solve this conundrum for us.

[fastfreddy]

The most probable cause of an off like that if it's caused by something mechanical is either a sudden lack of front downforce or stuck throttle. As neither is reported to have happened in this case it looks like he just got on a low grip part of the track and was hoping he'd get grip back but didn't. Then as soon as he's on the grass, game over.

Don't forget an experienced driver won't pile more lock on if the car is beginning to understeer as that will just make it worse. Maybe his 'flu contributed to a lack of concentration or slower reactions. I'm sure he'll give us the full story tomorrow.

[4rephill]

The main thing is that he's walking wounded and no worse thanks to the strengths of todays cars (and may well drive tomorrow by the looks of it)

[rdjohn]

The natural way to correct understeer is to back off and wait for the car to come back on line. unfortunately we cannot see his feet.

Slightly off topic but IMHO the accidents today could partly be due to the diffuser. The original intention this year was to cut downforce and rely on mechanical grip. The poor drafting of the rules meant that a lot more downforce was generated from the diffuser which, unlike a wing, relies on close proximity to the ground to be fully effective.

It is why ground effect cars were banned in the late 70s as once they became slightly airborne, there was less wing to encourage them to return to earth. The rules should have not been allowed to be misinterpreted in the way that Brawn, Toyota and Williams did.

[Pork_n_Beem]

Have watched the video a couple of times and i cannot see his front wheels turning even when he put a bit more lock on when he was on the grass, looks odd but it is hard to tell.

[snoopstah]

I can't see it's anything other than driver error.

You can clearly hear the throttle was steadily applied until after the point he left the tarmac (but then stopped, so no jammed throttle). I also think this discounts understeer, he may have kept his foot in through initial understeer in the hope it sorted itself out, but if it kept understeering it would have been very clear to him he needed to get off the power and take corrective action before he left the track completely. Even if he was unsuccesful you'd be able to see him attempt to correct this.

You can clearly see the brakes work as he locks the wheels before he hits the tyre wall (and even if they didn't work fully, he didn't need the brakes to make it round the corner in the first place).

You can clearly see the steering wheel works (the wheels clearly move when he removes the steering wheel after the crash). Yes, it's not totally clear that it's controlling the wheels before the crash, but I doubt the crash would have fixed broken steering, and if it wasn't working we'd have seen him fighting the steering, or again, coming off the power.

I don't see it being the suspension height either, between the kerb on the exit of the chicane and when he left the track was almost three seconds, more than enough time for the car to settle. The footage shows the car flat and steady.

As far as I can see that only leaves it to be driver error...

Definitely a strange one though.

[The Moose]

Where can you see footage of this??

I've looked, but can't find it?!?

Cheers

The Moose

[Rollcage]

here

[SamHH]

The Moose said:

Where can you see footage of this??

I've looked, but can't find it?!?

Cheers

The Moose

BBC website.

[The Moose]

Thanks for that Rollcage

One of the most bizarre (F1) crashes I have seen in a while...



Cheers

The Moose