This weekend saw yet another array of piss poor attempts by the "best drivers in the World" to get one car in front of another without making contact on a very large piece of tarmac specifically dedicated solely for the 24 of them to drive around on (all in the same direction as well!) . The nett result of one attempt by Jean-Eric Vergne on Heikki Kovaleinen was that the race track was littered with bits of car, made worse as Vergne then proceed to spread debris round the entire circuit as he drove back to the pits with a pieces of tyre cord flailing around, damaging more of the car. Out came the safety car, cocking up the race strategy of most and very likely causing the retirement of two potential winners
This raise a number of questions for me:
Firstly, could the marshalls have stopped Vergne from driving back given that his car was pretty obviously terminal and, apart from saving the young man a bit of a walk, what good did it serve?
Secondly, modern F1 cars are VERY safe as they fall to pieces at the slightest touch, dissipating the energy of the accident and allowing everyone to walk away feeling great (apart from the team owners bank balance). But this leaves the track littered with fine shards of very sharp pieces which can puncture tyres, radiators, perhaps even visors (?).
I can understand that impact zones and the monocoque should be carbon fibre as it is strong, light and offers the drivers the best possible protection but do the suspensions arms, wings, in fact every other appendage on the car, need to be made from it as well? Even the steering wheel? Surely an aluminium wing would offer the same aerodynamic effect but wouldn't dissolve into a thousand pieces when tapping the rear tyre of another car? Wouldn't metal suspension units be less likely to fall to pieces when the cars bounce off of one another as the drivers attempt to drive round a corner?
I may be very wrong but I don't recall there being as much debris left on the tracks in the days before CF. Perhaps it's time for a re-appraisal?
This raise a number of questions for me:
Firstly, could the marshalls have stopped Vergne from driving back given that his car was pretty obviously terminal and, apart from saving the young man a bit of a walk, what good did it serve?
Secondly, modern F1 cars are VERY safe as they fall to pieces at the slightest touch, dissipating the energy of the accident and allowing everyone to walk away feeling great (apart from the team owners bank balance). But this leaves the track littered with fine shards of very sharp pieces which can puncture tyres, radiators, perhaps even visors (?).
I can understand that impact zones and the monocoque should be carbon fibre as it is strong, light and offers the drivers the best possible protection but do the suspensions arms, wings, in fact every other appendage on the car, need to be made from it as well? Even the steering wheel? Surely an aluminium wing would offer the same aerodynamic effect but wouldn't dissolve into a thousand pieces when tapping the rear tyre of another car? Wouldn't metal suspension units be less likely to fall to pieces when the cars bounce off of one another as the drivers attempt to drive round a corner?
I may be very wrong but I don't recall there being as much debris left on the tracks in the days before CF. Perhaps it's time for a re-appraisal?