Formula One - The next five year regulations

[FJuan]

now you want me to guess what you are? :icon_wink bosco

 

 

Sure why not.

[stanjk3]

There is no mention of that specific head injury in the Wikipedia article. The only mention of his head injury was that it was of a massive concussive nature. I will certainly defer to your knowledge of F1.

 

However, I did watch the race live and there were far more sparks coming from the skid bars of Senna's William's than any of the other cars. I repeat the incident again because I remember thinking at least 5 laps before Senna lost control that his car just didn't look right and it was getting worse with every lap.

 

IIRC the safety car was on the track a couple/few laps prior to Senna's crash. Don't remember what car they used but it wasn't fast enough for use as a safety car. The greatly reduced speed from the safety car laps caused a reduction in tire pressure, which in turn caused Senna's car to bottom out more often. That then broke the weld in his steering colomn.

Telemetry said he hit the wall at ~150mph, hardly a fatal speed in an F1 car. Tambarello was taken flat out back then at ~180mph, and there weren't any tire walls to absorb impact. But it was the suspension piece that went through his visor and into his skull that caused his death.

[Vimy101]

Terrible accident and terrible loss. Senna was a genius.

[KartRacerBoy]

There was never a court judgment that the steering column broke before Senna hit the wall. The engineers couldn't say whether it broke b4 or after the crash. And if I recall, the telemetry was lost due to damage to black box, wasn't it? If so, they couldn't look at steering angle just b4 impact, which would be as close to definitive evidence as they were likely to find.

 

As to the safety car, I believe it was a tricked out Mercedes that the FIA took to each race. It was a fast street car, but even today the drivers say they push 10/10ths with the 500 hp car and the F1 cars still are at 1/10th.

[Scotty]

Time to bring out the Williams Renualt Espace for the safety car.

[KartRacerBoy]

Time to bring out the Williams Renualt Espace for the safety car.

 

Haul family. Haul ass.

[FJuan]

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid221/pf20b7bbe50a8ca7c85b7b342ca68ca4f/eb81dea8.jpg

 

[KartRacerBoy]

Not quite the same as the Williams-Renault Espace, but at the start of the One Lap of America event that started in South Bend this year, there were two Honda Odyssey minivans entered by Honda employees with VTEC motors, coilovers, custom swaybars f/r, 17x9 wheels, etc. Nice!

[stanjk3]

As to the safety car, I believe it was a tricked out Mercedes that the FIA took to each race. It was a fast street car, but even today the drivers say they push 10/10ths with the 500 hp car and the F1 cars still are at 1/10th.

 

Mercedes has supplied the safety car since '96. Currently they use a 481hp CLK 63 AMG. Yeah it's fast for a street car, but still nowhere near the speed of an F1 car.

http://www.formula1.com/insight/technicalinfo/11/1501.html

 

Whatever car they used back in '94 wasn't nearly fast enough.

 

Found this on You Tube:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO6K2vrS9BQ&mode=related&search=]YouTube- Broadcast Yourself.[/ame]

[f1anatic]

CLK 63 AMG. It has a slightly modified engine over road-going specification, and has also been modified to reduce its weight and improve braking response - but even with 354 kW (481 bhp) output from its V8 engine, that's still little more than half the power of a current Formula One car (combined with over three times the mass.)

 

If memory serves me right. Back in late 1980's/early 1990's they used different cars at different events. There were Alfa Romeos 155s DTM spec cars and there were FerrariTestarossas and there were Honda NSX. Fast cars in their own right but you can see from above...even a street monster like the CLK 63 AMG is a little "shit" compared to the nimble handling and the might of F1 cars (V8 or not).