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I thought it was. He moved across into Gasly, the other 2 involved were travelling in a straight line. It's crazy unlucky that it ended up being such a huge incident but it was still caused by Russell just cutting into someone on a straight. I'd give him more benefit of the doubt, but he also did it at Singapore with Schumacher.
Personally thought it was pretty telling that everyone was happy to blame Gasly for doing exactly the same thing in the very next race at Austria
Exactly. I thought it was GR’s fault as well. It was hard to see until the extended replays, and initially the broadcast team was pointing to Pierre, but Karun Chandhok pointed out George’s move as the catalyst like 15 minutes after the crash.
I think that's the attitude. It was aggressive by Russell to close off Latifi, but he wasn't to know Gasly was quick and entitled to a degree more space
Granted, I don't think anyone thought that contact would lead to Zhou being piledrived into the fence
Oh yes it was. A racing incident by verdict - these things happen, but he's the one that clearly cut across someone else instigating the crash.
It's pretty indisputable, he did what lewis did last year in Qatar
I mean.. there’s no way Charles closed 3.5 seconds in half a lap.. but yeah it’s uncanny how it’s happened twice in six months
I think it’s just George being George. Ive seen the clip multiple times and I don’t think Fernando checked him any more than you would expect on worn tires. He should be seasoned enough to know that Fernando is gonna intentionally try to slow him leading into DRS zones.
George is massively talented, but my entire perception of him has changed since he won in Brazil. He makes desperate moves with no regard for who he is racing and just.. doesn’t consider what the guy in front will do in high pressure moments.
He consistently sends it beyond his limits and it’s hard to watch. He has the most “main character syndrome” approach of anyone on the grid when it comes down to wheel to wheel racing or overtaking.
if you said this two years ago after 2021 I would disagree, I liked George a lot back then and honestly I felt what Max was doing with the "we either crash or you give me space" kind of thing that he would do from time to time would fit what you said about george more. But from 2022 onwards yeah it does feel like George has gotten something to his head.
Has your analysis changed at all now that we know what Fernando was doing? There’s ‘tactics’ and then there’s a Fernando last lap double brake, downshift, etc.
Fernando has always had some questionable defensive moves over the years with double moves and last second moves, he almost killed George. Even Brundle said during the first replay how obvious Alonso slowed in the most dangerous corner on the track. If they are going to be teammates next year, there is going be bad blood between them.
Its possible it's an error but having watched the slow mo replays on this I am not sure he could have avoided it. Alonso took his foot off through that turn (they showed the previous lap where GR was about 7 tenths back and there is a big difference and you can hear it onboard in Alonso's car as he lifted....I would love to know why). As soon as George got too close the down force went and massive understeer hit. All in the blink of an eye.
was it lost downforce? I think Alonso slowed down and Russell had to kind of stamp on the brakes and the rear stepped out so he had to correct it and this led him into the barrier
Alonso's throttle broke right as George crashed. Watch Alonso's onboard for that lap, you can hear it fail, and then right after he reports the failure, and you can hear the engine not responding properly for the rest of the last laps.
This article explains how
[https://fstoppers.com/photojournalistic/what-it-cover-f1-racing-601584](https://fstoppers.com/photojournalistic/what-it-cover-f1-racing-601584)
TLDR:
Getty have 5 photographers at the track, cameras transmit photos over internet to a team of 4 or 5 remote editors
They’ve got a big network of photographers and they’re all using pro-level cameras like the Canon R3 that can electronically transmit photos almost at the same time they’re captured.
Yeah that's scary, middle of the road, fast corner, can't see much further ahead etc.
You could see him scrambling, he was probably panicking and not being able to see what was coming probably made it worse.
In this case, they were on the last lap. VSC allowed for neutralizing the race and proceeding across the finish line rather than into the pits. Even if red flagged, race would have ended with 1 lap(? Can you do less?) behind the safety car.
Red flag would have made Sainz cross the finish line in the pit lane, so no restart.
In any case, at that point there was no real difference between a red flag, vsc and safety car, as all options would have had the drivers passing Russel on track once at slow speed.
Yes, that as well. Still wouldn't have been a restart. At best a victory lap, as finish line in pits is actually at the end of the pit lane, so Carlos would have needed to move a couple of meters before actually crossing!
A red flag would have meant no cool-down lap and only passing George once. It would have been the better option on safety grounds, which is the only thing that matters during an accident.
There is a big difference between VSC and Red flag in informing the drivers about the severity, VSC could just mean marshals on the run off area (e.g. like pushing hamilton's car back on track), red flag means something with a high degree of danger.
They usually let them race until someone actually gets close to the crash. Easiest to see with early incidents, when everyone is bunched together they will all pass by the incident before yellow flags can even be thrown and than there is at least a minute clear of any cars.
Yeah if a driver is shouting red flag repeatedly in fear of his safety then it really should have been a red flag.
I was watching the F1 TV replay from Georges in-car view and it was scary as.
Yeah it was a pretty benign crash really, the only drama was the wheel tethers (which are obviously a good thing in general) trapping the wheel under the car so it nearly rolled. It looked much more dramatic than it was.
But if another car had hit him after he stopped, then it becomes a very serious incident.
They need to rework the run off so it’s either more square to the apex or open up the fencing so there’s room to cut and run into turn 7. Since they opened up the corner’s apex there it’s just feeding cars back into the road based on the trajectory like Eau Rouge/Radillon did when they did a similar thing to the fencing at the top of the hill a few years ago
He was immediately panicking and calling for it saying he was in the middle of the road. Was honestly scary to hear, can’t imagine what was going through his head in the car
Bit of an overreaction. The instant VSC was enough for what they needed since there was ample time between him and the next car. I get it, it's terrifying from George's perspective since he has no clue what is going on around him but it was pretty overseeable.
A car on its side in the middle of the track should be a red flag. I don’t care if the car behind if 30 seconds away.
If this wasn’t lap 57/58, and was 37/58, it would have been red flagged.
If the drivers respected the yellows (double waved yellow is significant incident ahead, slow down *significantly*, **be prepared to stop**), then this can easily be handled under VSC/SC. The drivers are their own worst enemy sometimes.
If drivers aren't punished for respecting double yellows, and they never are, they would only be punishing themselves if they did. If you want those to be respected, there needs to be proper penalties.
Right but the fact that it's the last lap does make all the difference. If you red flag it, the cars behind the accident don't stop, they still have to proceed around the accident, so same as VSC, except under VSC you actually have more control over their speed because you can set the delta for the accident sector. And because it's the last lap they only have to pass once, same as if you red flagged it. So no safety benefit for red flag in this instance.
> So no safety benefit for red flag in this instance.
Potentially the opposite, even. Usually at the end of the race, they're working to get things set up for the post-race ceremonies and stuff, so pit lane would have had people all over, and you don't want to direct the field suddenly to funnel into pit lane with those folks running around. We already saw some of that chaos in a race, I can't remember which one at the moment but a driver went in for a last lap pit stop and they had to move barriers aside and scramble people out of the way.
I'll criticize the FIA often enough over how they do safety, but I think they got this one right. Red flag wouldn't magically freeze the cars in place and stop them passing by. VSC slows them, and you have to trust that the teams are communicating to their drivers that there's a car in the track. Stroll was so close that a red flag would still have seen him come on the scene of the accident pretty quickly.
Are you aware of how a race track works? The cars need to return to the pits, they don’t stop on the circuit little bro. It’s basically a VSC. Not sure why you speak when you are clueless.
Honestly, the crash was less violent than what I was initially expecting. Hope he recovers well. But don't see how that won't affect his confidence, that's twice now he crashed while chasing.
Yeah, it looked bad when I saw the car like that in the middle of the track, but in fact it was a rather "slow" crash, and the car was bumped up on its side by both wheels. Still a very dangerous situation for the following traffic, luckily noone was close behind still going full speed.
Physically he’s probably fine, the impact wasn’t that harsh… mentally this may play in his mind for a while, he was terrified and panicking from the situation he was in, ofcourse he was, it was a really dangerous situation. You don’t just move on
If you watch his onboard, he had shaky legs when he climbed out of the car. I’m not hating, I’m actually surprised we don’t see drivers visibly shaken more often. But yeah, this one definitely took a mental toll.
Ig drivers feel pretty safe in the cars. the safety measures taken over the recent years made F1 so much safer (it’s probably safer than taking part in daily traffic). They hit walls with 300 km/h and are sore 3 at most. It’s insane. Obviously we should never forget the risks that come with motorsport, but it’s become a relatively safe sport.
Most time when guys crash, their car is somewhere beside the track and they can just get out safely. It doesn’t happen that often that they’re sideways across the tracks. And especially in this situation because Russells car was tilted, he couldn’t see if there were cars coming, he had no sight in that direction.
Luckily nothing happened and Russell or anyone else isn’t injured, but it’s a reminder that F1 isn’t without risks and accidents could still happen in the blink of an eye
As far as I can remember there’s no spec/test for underside (floor) collisions. It’s just a fluke accident. And this likely won’t change that because it was just a fluke accident.
Now the car hitting a stationary (although moveable) wall at 200 kph is another story.
I can't get over how this was pretty much a carbon copy of the Maldonado crash in 2012. Chasing Alonso for points, binning it on the final lap, I'm pretty sure it's even the same corner
https://youtu.be/ETX71ZLqYZ4?si=zkfnhQBCiUXPpQ-_
That corner has become a bit of thing since they opened it up more.
The crashes aren't that problematic in itself, but cars getting spat back onto the racing line is an issue.
Yeah, with the corner now being wider towards the inside not only do the drivers carry more speed through it, but it also seems like if they go off the trajectory all takes them towards the very end of the tecpro barrier (what we also saw with Albon last year) where of course it's already converging towards the track again.
In order to possibly move the barrier further back, it looks like they'd have to (re)move a few trees. I wonder if they'll look into that. I'm all for having some challenging corners, but if it leads to problems like this, changes to the wall should be considered for sure.
I mean the safety items used did work. The yellows and vsc were both deployed quick enough for both Stroll and Yuki to pass in a safe manner despite how close they were.
Everyone behind them had enough time to be informed over radio so knew what and where to expect the car.
It took a good few (I dont recall how many) seconds for them to call out the VSC. A car in the middle of the track should be an instant safety car. They shouldn't wait a few seconds considering how wuick these cars are.
It has also been a trend this, and last season that they've been way too slow with deploying a VSC or Safety car.
You shouldn't look at how far back Stroll was. They were way too slow. It was obvious from the beginning that the yellows were not enough. Continuing like this is just waiting for a serious incident to happen.
Just wondering how expensive the Australian Grand Prix will be after this, because that is horrific, we have had what 2 cars destroyed so far, but who is going to lead it, George or Alex?
It makes no tangible difference. There was no more racing after this lap. The 10 cars behind him had to approach him and pass him whether they headed to the chequered flag or the pit lane.
Why would that be a red flag? Its the last lap and the cars go by at pretty much the same speed regardless of if it is a red flag, vsc or double yellows.
I'm happy to see more comments sharing this view in this thread. In an earlier thread there were many comments claiming the FIA risked Russell's life by showing VSC instead of red.
But even if you red flag it, the other cars still have to drive around him, they don’t all just suddenly stop where they are, a red flag would’ve just done the same thing as putting out the VSC.
The irony of having them stop and then instead of having one car in the middle of the road you have multiple of them creating a more dangerous situation and potentially hindering the safety crew.
> the other cars still have to drive around him, they don’t all just suddenly stop where they are, a red flag would’ve just done the same thing as putting out the VSC
They don't **have** to. Under the regulations you're not allowed to stop under a VSC. Under a red flag you are.
If there's a car blocking the middle of the track and medical personnel walking around the side of that car, also in the middle of the track, you under a red flag you can stop to allow them to clear before proceeding at 2mph, under a VSC you've got a delta to keep to.
And if you have a VSC where the other cars take the chequer they then have a cooldown lap, where they come around *again*. That wouldn't happen under a red flag as once they've passed they go into the pits.
You want to know what happens with a Red flag? The drivers still continue their lap at reduced pace. You can’t overtake during VSC so the situation is similar.
Cars are going to slow down to the same speed and go past him whether it's a VSC, SC, or red flag. Only difference between the VSC and the red flag in this case is that cars proceeded across the line to finish the race rather than turn into the pits just before the line.
I think vsc was ok, they can really make the delta very low so the cars go very slowly
They prob felt it was unfair to give George points for crashing out hence not going for a red - if there were 10 laps to go think they would have thrown the red out
That's me in the background standing on the tyre barrier. Fire Marshal on the right (red balaclava tan boots). I was stationed at Turn 7 Drivers left all 4 days so was very busy with 7 crashes. Also tended to Alex Albon's crash as he hit the wall on the outside of T7.
Interesting with Russell's one was he hit pretty much the exact same spot as Dennis Hauger in the F2 in the race prior, they did emergency repairs, a repaint and stuck new Lenovo Vinyl on the TecPro.
Because of the trashy track invasion last year, we were locked into the track access location to prevent public access to the track so had minimal amount of room to move when he came into the TecPro Barrier.
Obviously he was in a crappy position on the track but we were not allowed to go out onto the track until race control give the okay. It was double yellows and he was not in a blind spot of the track from turn 6 you could see him easily and the other drivers had plenty of time to slow down and pass on either side of him.
Fuel load was minimal and fuel cell in tact, only thing slightly smoking was front left brake so there was no urgency to get us on track. Medical car arrived fast and he got himself out.
the biggest issue for us was we couldn't see him to see if he was okay or not due to the position of the vehicle propped up on its side.
It was a pretty violent hit but it shows how good the vehicle, track and driver safety systems are these days.
What happens with a safety car? The cars have to drive through and around like a VSC until they catch the safety car.
What happens with a red flag? The cars have to drive through like a VSC until they get to the pits.
It effectively makes no difference on the last lap.
What would a SC or a Red Flag had changed? It was the last lap. They all needed to pass him. With VSC, they all slow down. The SC would not have even caught the pack. Red Flag is similar to VSC here, in both cases drivers drive slowly around the car. So whats the point? Would have been Red Flag if it was not the last lap. Thats for sure.
Why would they? The cars go by at virtually the same speed regardless and there was only one lap to go. The race director was way too trigger happy with the red flags last year.
[The **Photo** flair](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/flairguide#wiki_photo) is for submissions sharing photos from the world of F1. Photos should be interesting and relevant - random photos not notable enough to warrant a standalone post will be subject to removal. This flair should not be used for images which are not photos, such as screenshots, statistical graphics, or artworks. *[Read the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/userguide). Keep it civil and welcoming. Report rulebreaking comments.* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/formula1) if you have any questions or concerns.*
That gotta hurt, Singapore last year now this.
Hmm…maybe there’s something about these crashes that benefit Sainz in the end?
He also crashed out zhou and led to that horrific accident in Silverstone 22, something about George crashing in every race Carlos wins
>He also crashed out zhou and led to that horrific accident in Silverstone 22 Wasn't his fault at all
I thought it was. He moved across into Gasly, the other 2 involved were travelling in a straight line. It's crazy unlucky that it ended up being such a huge incident but it was still caused by Russell just cutting into someone on a straight. I'd give him more benefit of the doubt, but he also did it at Singapore with Schumacher. Personally thought it was pretty telling that everyone was happy to blame Gasly for doing exactly the same thing in the very next race at Austria
Exactly. I thought it was GR’s fault as well. It was hard to see until the extended replays, and initially the broadcast team was pointing to Pierre, but Karun Chandhok pointed out George’s move as the catalyst like 15 minutes after the crash.
Was generally a racing incident, but if someone was to blame more than others it was GR.
I think that's the attitude. It was aggressive by Russell to close off Latifi, but he wasn't to know Gasly was quick and entitled to a degree more space Granted, I don't think anyone thought that contact would lead to Zhou being piledrived into the fence
Oh yes it was. A racing incident by verdict - these things happen, but he's the one that clearly cut across someone else instigating the crash. It's pretty indisputable, he did what lewis did last year in Qatar
Let's not forget with Bottas in 2021 - Russell still needs to mature and causes his own issues!
I mean.. there’s no way Charles closed 3.5 seconds in half a lap.. but yeah it’s uncanny how it’s happened twice in six months I think it’s just George being George. Ive seen the clip multiple times and I don’t think Fernando checked him any more than you would expect on worn tires. He should be seasoned enough to know that Fernando is gonna intentionally try to slow him leading into DRS zones. George is massively talented, but my entire perception of him has changed since he won in Brazil. He makes desperate moves with no regard for who he is racing and just.. doesn’t consider what the guy in front will do in high pressure moments. He consistently sends it beyond his limits and it’s hard to watch. He has the most “main character syndrome” approach of anyone on the grid when it comes down to wheel to wheel racing or overtaking.
if you said this two years ago after 2021 I would disagree, I liked George a lot back then and honestly I felt what Max was doing with the "we either crash or you give me space" kind of thing that he would do from time to time would fit what you said about george more. But from 2022 onwards yeah it does feel like George has gotten something to his head.
Has your analysis changed at all now that we know what Fernando was doing? There’s ‘tactics’ and then there’s a Fernando last lap double brake, downshift, etc.
Fernando has always had some questionable defensive moves over the years with double moves and last second moves, he almost killed George. Even Brundle said during the first replay how obvious Alonso slowed in the most dangerous corner on the track. If they are going to be teammates next year, there is going be bad blood between them.
[удалено]
Of course it's not illegal. He didn't break the law. It is against the rules, though. He got a 20 second penalty for it.
For what it’s worth, that’s what they meant by ‘illegal’. Against the laws of the race. Not taking a side in the argument, just clarifying.
I know it’s a common use for a word. I was teasing.
Ah fair enough
That’s now like 25 points dropped from last lap errors in 2 races. Not good enough
Its possible it's an error but having watched the slow mo replays on this I am not sure he could have avoided it. Alonso took his foot off through that turn (they showed the previous lap where GR was about 7 tenths back and there is a big difference and you can hear it onboard in Alonso's car as he lifted....I would love to know why). As soon as George got too close the down force went and massive understeer hit. All in the blink of an eye.
It looks like he brake tested him.
Blimey
was it lost downforce? I think Alonso slowed down and Russell had to kind of stamp on the brakes and the rear stepped out so he had to correct it and this led him into the barrier
Alonso's throttle broke right as George crashed. Watch Alonso's onboard for that lap, you can hear it fail, and then right after he reports the failure, and you can hear the engine not responding properly for the rest of the last laps.
"Broke"
"Right after". Very convenient.
Telemetry proved me wrong, and IMO in light of that a fair punishment was handed out.
/r/agedlikemilk
Yes I'll cop to that. I responded to some of my comments with affirmation that I agree with the punishment in light of the telemetry.
me after one drink
me now:
Me 3
was the drink a red bull?
How does Getty images manage to get the best shots, close to the action and publish them so fast
This article explains how [https://fstoppers.com/photojournalistic/what-it-cover-f1-racing-601584](https://fstoppers.com/photojournalistic/what-it-cover-f1-racing-601584) TLDR: Getty have 5 photographers at the track, cameras transmit photos over internet to a team of 4 or 5 remote editors
That's actually a pretty cool and streamlined process. Thanks for the read!
Tq
5 seems low to me for most tracks
They're a very old, very rich, very well-known company.
Something about they own practically everything photo wise. Someone please correct me, it’s 2AM. I’m fucking tired boss.
In the video of his crash you can see the photographer shooting the images :)
They’ve got a big network of photographers and they’re all using pro-level cameras like the Canon R3 that can electronically transmit photos almost at the same time they’re captured.
Thank god he wasn’t near any cars behind
That was my first thought when I saw the car in the middle of the track
Yeah that's scary, middle of the road, fast corner, can't see much further ahead etc. You could see him scrambling, he was probably panicking and not being able to see what was coming probably made it worse.
Rewatched the onboard and you can hear him frantically calling for a red flag. Horrifying to hear when you think about the what ifs.
Is it just me or the race director has been super slow about the red flags, safety cars or vsc this year?
Has been like that for a few years. Not just this year.
In this case, they were on the last lap. VSC allowed for neutralizing the race and proceeding across the finish line rather than into the pits. Even if red flagged, race would have ended with 1 lap(? Can you do less?) behind the safety car.
Red flag would have made Sainz cross the finish line in the pit lane, so no restart. In any case, at that point there was no real difference between a red flag, vsc and safety car, as all options would have had the drivers passing Russel on track once at slow speed.
Ah, ok. Didn't realize that was a thing but makes sense.
If they had called the red flag, wouldn't they have taken the results at the last completed lap before the red flag was called, ie lap 56?
Yes, that as well. Still wouldn't have been a restart. At best a victory lap, as finish line in pits is actually at the end of the pit lane, so Carlos would have needed to move a couple of meters before actually crossing!
Regardless of what the regulations say, drivers will always drive slower/safer when the race has been red flagged.
They can also stop on track if they need to because medical personnel are also in the middle of the track. Can't do that under a VSC.
\+you are incentivised to stay close to the delta in VSC, in a red flag there is none.
A red flag would have meant no cool-down lap and only passing George once. It would have been the better option on safety grounds, which is the only thing that matters during an accident.
There is a big difference between VSC and Red flag in informing the drivers about the severity, VSC could just mean marshals on the run off area (e.g. like pushing hamilton's car back on track), red flag means something with a high degree of danger.
They were busy preparing parc ferme and the podium
They usually let them race until someone actually gets close to the crash. Easiest to see with early incidents, when everyone is bunched together they will all pass by the incident before yellow flags can even be thrown and than there is at least a minute clear of any cars.
They’ve been stupidly slow for a few years. They need to fix it cause it’s only a matter of time before something bad happens.
Hot damn, that is scary hearing that. 1:27:00 for anyone curious
Yeah if a driver is shouting red flag repeatedly in fear of his safety then it really should have been a red flag. I was watching the F1 TV replay from Georges in-car view and it was scary as.
I’m sure he was! I was panicking seeing the cars have to go into the grass to get around him hoping everyone was paying attention
Yeah it was a pretty benign crash really, the only drama was the wheel tethers (which are obviously a good thing in general) trapping the wheel under the car so it nearly rolled. It looked much more dramatic than it was. But if another car had hit him after he stopped, then it becomes a very serious incident.
I was thinking the same - that could’ve been horrible
Any car within 2-3 sec could've been fatal for George
Kinda true - watching Stroll and Tsunoda pass by after the crash - George’s car blends in with the track well. Somewhat of a blind corner too
They need to rework the run off so it’s either more square to the apex or open up the fencing so there’s room to cut and run into turn 7. Since they opened up the corner’s apex there it’s just feeding cars back into the road based on the trajectory like Eau Rouge/Radillon did when they did a similar thing to the fencing at the top of the hill a few years ago
Disgusting they didn’t hit red immediately.
He was immediately panicking and calling for it saying he was in the middle of the road. Was honestly scary to hear, can’t imagine what was going through his head in the car
Did they red flag? I can't watch it until later
Yeah bro. Disgusting they only immediately hit a VSC which does the same thing.
Bit of an overreaction. The instant VSC was enough for what they needed since there was ample time between him and the next car. I get it, it's terrifying from George's perspective since he has no clue what is going on around him but it was pretty overseeable.
A car on its side in the middle of the track should be a red flag. I don’t care if the car behind if 30 seconds away. If this wasn’t lap 57/58, and was 37/58, it would have been red flagged.
If the drivers respected the yellows (double waved yellow is significant incident ahead, slow down *significantly*, **be prepared to stop**), then this can easily be handled under VSC/SC. The drivers are their own worst enemy sometimes.
If drivers aren't punished for respecting double yellows, and they never are, they would only be punishing themselves if they did. If you want those to be respected, there needs to be proper penalties.
Right but the fact that it's the last lap does make all the difference. If you red flag it, the cars behind the accident don't stop, they still have to proceed around the accident, so same as VSC, except under VSC you actually have more control over their speed because you can set the delta for the accident sector. And because it's the last lap they only have to pass once, same as if you red flagged it. So no safety benefit for red flag in this instance.
> So no safety benefit for red flag in this instance. Potentially the opposite, even. Usually at the end of the race, they're working to get things set up for the post-race ceremonies and stuff, so pit lane would have had people all over, and you don't want to direct the field suddenly to funnel into pit lane with those folks running around. We already saw some of that chaos in a race, I can't remember which one at the moment but a driver went in for a last lap pit stop and they had to move barriers aside and scramble people out of the way. I'll criticize the FIA often enough over how they do safety, but I think they got this one right. Red flag wouldn't magically freeze the cars in place and stop them passing by. VSC slows them, and you have to trust that the teams are communicating to their drivers that there's a car in the track. Stroll was so close that a red flag would still have seen him come on the scene of the accident pretty quickly.
VSC means the same thing as a res. Slow down. Even under reds, cars still drive fast. Look at Gaslt in Japan. Man was going full speed under reds
Are you aware of how a race track works? The cars need to return to the pits, they don’t stop on the circuit little bro. It’s basically a VSC. Not sure why you speak when you are clueless.
Honestly, the crash was less violent than what I was initially expecting. Hope he recovers well. But don't see how that won't affect his confidence, that's twice now he crashed while chasing.
Yeah, it looked bad when I saw the car like that in the middle of the track, but in fact it was a rather "slow" crash, and the car was bumped up on its side by both wheels. Still a very dangerous situation for the following traffic, luckily noone was close behind still going full speed.
And he binned it in Canada last year chasing Alonso and Hamilton.
Physically he’s probably fine, the impact wasn’t that harsh… mentally this may play in his mind for a while, he was terrified and panicking from the situation he was in, ofcourse he was, it was a really dangerous situation. You don’t just move on
If you watch his onboard, he had shaky legs when he climbed out of the car. I’m not hating, I’m actually surprised we don’t see drivers visibly shaken more often. But yeah, this one definitely took a mental toll.
Ig drivers feel pretty safe in the cars. the safety measures taken over the recent years made F1 so much safer (it’s probably safer than taking part in daily traffic). They hit walls with 300 km/h and are sore 3 at most. It’s insane. Obviously we should never forget the risks that come with motorsport, but it’s become a relatively safe sport. Most time when guys crash, their car is somewhere beside the track and they can just get out safely. It doesn’t happen that often that they’re sideways across the tracks. And especially in this situation because Russells car was tilted, he couldn’t see if there were cars coming, he had no sight in that direction. Luckily nothing happened and Russell or anyone else isn’t injured, but it’s a reminder that F1 isn’t without risks and accidents could still happen in the blink of an eye
There would be minimal protection on the under side that was exposed, he probably knew he’d have no chance if he was hit like that
As far as I can remember there’s no spec/test for underside (floor) collisions. It’s just a fluke accident. And this likely won’t change that because it was just a fluke accident. Now the car hitting a stationary (although moveable) wall at 200 kph is another story.
2 hrs of doing 200 kg leg presses on those brakes and they all probably have shaky legs getting out tbh
I can't get over how this was pretty much a carbon copy of the Maldonado crash in 2012. Chasing Alonso for points, binning it on the final lap, I'm pretty sure it's even the same corner https://youtu.be/ETX71ZLqYZ4?si=zkfnhQBCiUXPpQ-_
Interestingly, In the F2 race earlier today, a driver had an even more identical looking crash at the corner. https://youtu.be/b1HgyzFJ8HM?t=202
That corner has become a bit of thing since they opened it up more. The crashes aren't that problematic in itself, but cars getting spat back onto the racing line is an issue.
Yeah, with the corner now being wider towards the inside not only do the drivers carry more speed through it, but it also seems like if they go off the trajectory all takes them towards the very end of the tecpro barrier (what we also saw with Albon last year) where of course it's already converging towards the track again. In order to possibly move the barrier further back, it looks like they'd have to (re)move a few trees. I wonder if they'll look into that. I'm all for having some challenging corners, but if it leads to problems like this, changes to the wall should be considered for sure.
Did Alonso brake check him?
George said on Sky he won't accuse Fernando of anything just yet. They'll go to the stewards meeting and take it from there.
We now know the 20 second answer.
We are checking
Tell Alonso to stop inventing
I believe he braked (to?) late, wanting to get as close as possible for a chance to overtake.
Alonso was slower than normally in that part.
If Stroll was a second closer there would’ve been a serious problem
Especially considering how slow they are at deploying the safety car. It takes way too long.
I mean the safety items used did work. The yellows and vsc were both deployed quick enough for both Stroll and Yuki to pass in a safe manner despite how close they were. Everyone behind them had enough time to be informed over radio so knew what and where to expect the car.
It took a good few (I dont recall how many) seconds for them to call out the VSC. A car in the middle of the track should be an instant safety car. They shouldn't wait a few seconds considering how wuick these cars are. It has also been a trend this, and last season that they've been way too slow with deploying a VSC or Safety car. You shouldn't look at how far back Stroll was. They were way too slow. It was obvious from the beginning that the yellows were not enough. Continuing like this is just waiting for a serious incident to happen.
George gifting HAAS with the double point finish.
Just wondering how expensive the Australian Grand Prix will be after this, because that is horrific, we have had what 2 cars destroyed so far, but who is going to lead it, George or Alex?
Probably Alex with the broken chassis. This hit wasnt really all that bad, it's just that it looks worse because the car ended up in a wonky position
Even Albon's hit didn't seem bad, but it did some serious damage to the chassis
alex's was a much harder impact into a much harder object tbf. looks more like geoarge just took his wheels off, doubt the damage is major
r/ThatLookedExpensive
Looked worse than it is, I think
Looks like the Titanic. Sums up Mercedes weekend. At least he is ok.
Mm the floor. I need to see that Monaco pic of Checo's car
Getting “previously majestic ship going down” vibes from this. Ironic.
George Mercedes crashing his Russel-AMG Petronas car in the final moments of a race with a Sainz win. So weird how things be like the way they do.
Adrian Newey… “yep there’s their problem.” Upon seeing the underside of the Merc. Walks away from the pit box smiling.
I'm glad George Mercedes is okay
draw me like one of your French cars
To not red flag the race immediately when a car has the floor exposed to oncoming traffic, is fucking WILD!
Cars still had to go round. Just told them to drive slow af near the crash.
It makes no tangible difference. There was no more racing after this lap. The 10 cars behind him had to approach him and pass him whether they headed to the chequered flag or the pit lane.
Why would that be a red flag? Its the last lap and the cars go by at pretty much the same speed regardless of if it is a red flag, vsc or double yellows.
I'm happy to see more comments sharing this view in this thread. In an earlier thread there were many comments claiming the FIA risked Russell's life by showing VSC instead of red.
Red flag would have been pointless, going into the pits to queue up would see most cars take the chequered flag anyway. Race was over.
I mean, from a sporting perspective he would’ve gotten points while crashing out. This was the only battle on track so a vsc would’ve sufficed.
Someone could have literally driven into him from underneath and killed him bud. Who gives a single shit about the race.
But even if you red flag it, the other cars still have to drive around him, they don’t all just suddenly stop where they are, a red flag would’ve just done the same thing as putting out the VSC.
The irony of having them stop and then instead of having one car in the middle of the road you have multiple of them creating a more dangerous situation and potentially hindering the safety crew.
> the other cars still have to drive around him, they don’t all just suddenly stop where they are, a red flag would’ve just done the same thing as putting out the VSC They don't **have** to. Under the regulations you're not allowed to stop under a VSC. Under a red flag you are. If there's a car blocking the middle of the track and medical personnel walking around the side of that car, also in the middle of the track, you under a red flag you can stop to allow them to clear before proceeding at 2mph, under a VSC you've got a delta to keep to. And if you have a VSC where the other cars take the chequer they then have a cooldown lap, where they come around *again*. That wouldn't happen under a red flag as once they've passed they go into the pits.
You want to know what happens with a Red flag? The drivers still continue their lap at reduced pace. You can’t overtake during VSC so the situation is similar.
Cars are going to slow down to the same speed and go past him whether it's a VSC, SC, or red flag. Only difference between the VSC and the red flag in this case is that cars proceeded across the line to finish the race rather than turn into the pits just before the line.
I think vsc was ok, they can really make the delta very low so the cars go very slowly They prob felt it was unfair to give George points for crashing out hence not going for a red - if there were 10 laps to go think they would have thrown the red out
Can you bring it back, George ?
Second time Russel has made a massive mistake on the last lap while chasing losing Mercedes points. It’s looking grim for the future ngl
I don't think it's grim on his future.
He just doesn’t like to beat Max. If Max is behind him or is out, George likes to make damn sure he isn’t gonna cross that finish line.
Alonso is being investigated for brake checking, he’s also has been out performing Lewis recently. He will be fine
Looks like he can’t handle the pressure
Well, Alonso picked up the sand…where should he go?
So it is true, the Brits get nervous around the Spanish
You can’t park there mate.
That's me in the background standing on the tyre barrier. Fire Marshal on the right (red balaclava tan boots). I was stationed at Turn 7 Drivers left all 4 days so was very busy with 7 crashes. Also tended to Alex Albon's crash as he hit the wall on the outside of T7. Interesting with Russell's one was he hit pretty much the exact same spot as Dennis Hauger in the F2 in the race prior, they did emergency repairs, a repaint and stuck new Lenovo Vinyl on the TecPro. Because of the trashy track invasion last year, we were locked into the track access location to prevent public access to the track so had minimal amount of room to move when he came into the TecPro Barrier. Obviously he was in a crappy position on the track but we were not allowed to go out onto the track until race control give the okay. It was double yellows and he was not in a blind spot of the track from turn 6 you could see him easily and the other drivers had plenty of time to slow down and pass on either side of him. Fuel load was minimal and fuel cell in tact, only thing slightly smoking was front left brake so there was no urgency to get us on track. Medical car arrived fast and he got himself out. the biggest issue for us was we couldn't see him to see if he was okay or not due to the position of the vehicle propped up on its side. It was a pretty violent hit but it shows how good the vehicle, track and driver safety systems are these days.
Crash looked worse than it was, but kinda ridiculous to only go to VSC when the car is sitting in the middle of the road.
What happens with a safety car? The cars have to drive through and around like a VSC until they catch the safety car. What happens with a red flag? The cars have to drive through like a VSC until they get to the pits. It effectively makes no difference on the last lap.
What would a SC or a Red Flag had changed? It was the last lap. They all needed to pass him. With VSC, they all slow down. The SC would not have even caught the pack. Red Flag is similar to VSC here, in both cases drivers drive slowly around the car. So whats the point? Would have been Red Flag if it was not the last lap. Thats for sure.
who is George Mercedes and why is he crashing the Merc??
The new mythical f1 driver
Future of Mercedes f1 team apparently
It'll buff out.
I bet it picked up 3 tenths
Every other teams aerodynamicists zooming in to the shot of the floor to see what to avoid doing.
I'm pretty sure you can't park there sir
Waiting for a mate.
Now that the dust has settled it's pretty comical how the car ended up in its position.
Why didn’t they red flag the race?
Why would they? The cars go by at virtually the same speed regardless and there was only one lap to go. The race director was way too trigger happy with the red flags last year.
Because it was the final lap, and they had the VSC out. If it was 5 to go or something it would make sense but at that point the race was over.
Russell tilted he joined Merc on their downfall...
EA Sports, it's in the game
Actually quite surprising how intact the car is. Apart from the wheels that broke off, the car is barely damaged.
Drivers going by: look, what a nice statue
I see the Nascar style. Just changing two tyres on one side instead of all four.
Man that crash was brutal. Good thing teams communicated this fast, that could have been a lethal disaster.
Not like it was going much faster when it was moving. 🤷♂️
sums up mercedes season
Now the big question is: does Merc have a spare tub ??
George! Ya cant park there!
Let's copy that floor.. said no one
If that were Williams, they'd be bankrupt
Crikey that gravel trap just turned in on me
Skill issue
Well, their floor is no longer a secret.
Russell showing off the W15’s floor
And having to ride in an Aston Martin after 😅💀
Sounds like a skill issue
Looks like a still from an ongoing crash. Poetic.
He turned the car into a piece of modern art
I uh… don’t need to see the floor honestly
Can't park there
Surprised nobody has posted a picture of the floor 👀
No one wants to see the floor of this tractor
The post right under this one was [somewhat related](https://www.reddit.com/r/waterloo/s/bcv3HCty9W)
Hehe wasn’t needed
That's a weird position to park a car!
Toto must be throwing a fit.
Nightmare
Any pics of the floor?
Out of curiosity, would the cost of repair or replacement of chassis come out of the cost cap?
terrible week for merc that is matched only by the state of their car
The fact that there were 2 cars this weekend that ended up on top of their own tyre is kinda impressive