2810 replies to this topic

[JHS18]

Following yesterday's accident, the team have confirmed that Maria has lost her right eye.

http://www.autosport...t.php/id/100907

[Massa]

Statement from Marussia was just released:

http://www.oxfordtim...Villota_latest/

[Rainmaster]

Edit: That news probably doesn't need repeating. Thanks for telling me about added replies, forum.

Anyway, I don't see this as a experience issue either. It could however lead to improvements in safety for straight line tests, where it might be a little more relaxed than at group tests, official events, etc (not saying that was the major issue here, but perhaps could have helped somehow to have more strict rules in place).

Edited by Rainmaster, 04 July 2012 - 03:30 PM.

[LabradoRacer]

Sad that she's lost her right eye.

[JHS18]

Makes me think of Felipe Massa. Similar situation in a way, and makes you realise how lucky he was not to lose an eye or anything like that.

Very sad.

[AleHop]

María de Villota underwent craneal surgery last night. Next 48 hours are critical.

Eric, we should all love tennis. You rarely see serious injuries on a tennis court.

Seriosuly, I love tennis.  

The season so far: http://www.bbc.co.uk...rmula1/18608243

[Insider]

I couldn't bring myself to say anything for a while. Devastating news. A tragedy.  They obviously know the cause but we won't until the HSE make an announcement. This is a workplace accident and they are the ruling body. Poor Maria.

[JHS18]

Obviously the main concern is her health right now, and hopefully she makes a full recovery. But if she still wanted to race, I think she could. Paul Drayson got special dispensation by the FIA to race in sports cars a few years ago, and even raced at Le Mans in 2009 and 2010. He is blind in one eye.

Basically, whilst it is a tragedy to hear of this (and I can't imagine what it must be like going from seeing perfectly to being half blind), it isn't as potentially career ending as some areas of the media are making it sound like. But clearly we don't know if she has any other injuries yet, and any return to racing cars will be a long way off.

Thoughts with her family, and Marussia. Kinda puts a cloud over the British GP too.

Edited by JHS18, 04 July 2012 - 06:40 PM.

[BradSpeedMan]

AleHop, on 04 July 2012 - 03:51 PM, said:

Seriosuly, I love tennis.  

second that, I think mainly because I played it during my teenage years... Nadal's my fav, and man, it's sad he got knocked out so early....

Edited by BradSpeedMan, 04 July 2012 - 06:51 PM.

[AleHop]

BradSpeedMan, on 04 July 2012 - 06:49 PM, said:

second that, I think mainly because I played it during my teenage years... Nadal's my fav, and man, it's sad he got knocked out so early....

I played it too when I was a child. That's tennis, things like that happens especially in Wimbledon. He's my fav too but let's enjoy Federer vs. Djokovic on Friday.

Let's hope for the best with María de Villota but honestly, with 32 years of age and her record in lesser categories I don't think anybody should be worried about her career. I think her life and well being is the only thing that matters and of course I would like to know the truth of that strange accident, what happened should never happen again.

[LabradoRacer]

I hope she gets a bionic eye that can almost give her full eyesight.

[Insider]

I think the fact that Marussia were at Duxford conducting a straight line test brings the whole issue of in-season testing into sharp focus. I could care less about those who want F1 to become an even more perverse spectacle than it already is. A modicum of sense has to reign here and safety must be the paramount issue. Impoverished teams turning up at GPs, having missed pre-season tests with untried parts is unacceptable in my book.  It's a disaster waiting to happen. There needs to be greater share of the huge TV revenues paid to all the teams to cover the costs of a return to in-season testing. Why? I believe that any driver, whatever their role in an F1 team should be the holder of a super licence. Many years ago, I held a private pilots licence but I reached a point where I could no longer afford to log the hours that were required to keep it valid. I was not allowed to fly - period. All drivers should have to achieve SL status before they are allowed to climb into a F1 car AND be afforded the opportunity to complete a specified amount of hours in the car to retain it - on an accredited circuit, not in a straight line. This has no bearing on Maria's accident but I believe the current fashion of collecting squads of drivers who can bring money to the teams should be seriously looked at and dealt with.

[Quiet One]

Awful news for María. I am not usually shocked by these news but in this case I am.

And I think this is a career ending. With no perception of depth, driving a car at 320+ km/h through a circuit is problematic,  to say the least.

[Rainmaster]

Awful indeed. I think it's more shocking than even if she had died, because it is such a gruesome injury and one of the worst ones you could survive in terms of being self-conscious and losing functionality. Plus we heard she was conscious so hope crept in that she'd make a full recovery.

[AleHop]

Some information and hypothesis about de Villota's accident. In Spanish but with some schematics.

[Argento Reloaded]

Sadly I think is an human error. Nevertheles the truck platform it is supposed not to be at that position: it´s basic industrial safety! What a luck: the moment you´ve waiting for youe entire life and... accident! Sh#t happens... hope she can make an entire normal life from now on.

[Grabthaw the Hammerslayer]

Let's not get too morbid, God forbid there's enough of that in the newspapers these days as it is.

Racers are tough individuals and you only have to look at the example of Alex Zanardi, who lost both legs and nearly died in a horrific accident to realise that there is life beyond such awful events. Alex has actually won several marathons, including the one in Rome and New York using hand bikes and has driven competitively in other formula.

Reminds me very much of my young nephew who passed away about 10 years ago aged 17 from cystic fibrosis. He was born with this life threatening disease and endured much on his short time on this planet. Yet throughout he never got maudlin, he just got on with it and enjoyed and did things with his life.

Taught me a lesson in humility.

[Insider]

Argento Reloaded, on 05 July 2012 - 03:04 AM, said:

Sadly I think is an human error. Nevertheles the truck platform it is supposed not to be at that position: it´s basic industrial safety! What a luck: the moment you´ve waiting for youe entire life and... accident! Sh#t happens... hope she can make an entire normal life from now on.

Human error from whom? The truck driver? I don't think anyone would  have driven towards the back of the truck on purpose! It may be that she caught the corner of the ramp on her return to the box area [the damage is apparently to the right side of her head] but most witnesses have stated that the car appeared to accelerate towards the truck. Still, these things happen in a flash and it will be some time before the true story comes out. Perhaps only Maria has the answers.

[Insider]

http://www.bbc.co.uk...rmula1/18687003

Looking at this footage, [if you're outside the UK you will need a VPN set up on your computer] and listening to the reporter, it's clear that the car almost came to a halt and then accelerated over @30/40 metres into the right corner of the truck's extended lift apparatus. Hence the severity of Maria's injuries. If the tail lift had been in the closed position, [as it should have been] the injuries would have probably been less severe.

[Argento Reloaded]

Insider, on 05 July 2012 - 08:06 AM, said:

Human error from whom? The truck driver? I don't think anyone would  have driven towards the back of the truck on purpose! It may be that she caught the corner of the ramp on her return to the box area [the damage is apparently to the right side of her head] but most witnesses have stated that the car appeared to accelerate towards the truck. Still, these things happen in a flash and it will be some time before the true story comes out. Perhaps only Maria has the answers.

From her apparently.

[AleHop]

Argento Reloaded, on 05 July 2012 - 01:25 PM, said:

From her apparently.

That may be true, although it will be just another hypothesis until there's an official version or an investigation of the events.

There seem to have been a few security flaws and Marussia will have to answer some questions.

[Massa]

I don't know what caused it, and I don't think it matters at all.  I've read from multiple sources that an anti-stall system activated, which sent the car to 50% throttle unexpectedly.  It is unclear why it activated, but "unexpectedly" makes it seem like it wasn't something anyone did.

The whole thing is purely a freak accident, no matter what or who caused it.  Maybe something meaningful comes from it after the knee-jerking stops, but it does seem like the kind of thing that would be just about impossible to replicate.  I think it's just going to be an incident added to the FIA's arsenal of advocacy for some type of closed cockpit or shield on the cars, whether you agree with that or not.  It's been something the FIA have been developing for years and this might push that along even more.  I'm not sure what else, procedurally, can or would be done with straight-line aero testing.  You can put the trucks wherever you'd like, but at some point, the car has to turn off the runway and return to some type of pit area...nearly every single time that will be fine.  It seems to me, and I may be way off-base, that you no matter what changes you make to who was driving or what car they were in or where things were located, this incident still could have happened.

Here's something similar that has happened, in drag racing.  The cars come to a stop in this area...but the engine fired and the driver crashed into a trailer.  No one was hurt.



The point being...you can have the car anywhere with anyone in it, if it just starts accelerating for whatever reason, there's going to be an accident.  It's easier to design things such that those accidents don't have devastating consequences (such as some type of mechanism like a windshield) than it is to prevent these accidents because they are truly freak things, and not things that are a result of the sport or its procedures.

Just my $0.02, and my money's measured in Fahrenheit so it ain't worth much.

[Insider]

F1 drivers reactions a super quick. Even in the car had accelerated after anti-stall or another reason you can still turn the wheel. Looking at the BBC footage she had the distance to do that. It is a huge mystery.

[Insider]

The car hit the tail gate platform diagonally.  The audio at the end sounds like the car just started and went. There doesn't appear to be enough time lapse for Maria to steer away. I don't know.

[Massa]

A positive-sounding update about María de Villota:

http://www.gpupdate....urther-surgery/

[voriax]

How does this two words compare: Marussia & Professional  ?

There is no comparsion, Marussia will never be Professional team, last events showed that's it is a circus!
I have no words to describe what a security responsible idiot led to such sitiuation...

Edited by voriax, 08 July 2012 - 08:08 AM.

[Rainmaster]

Recently in F1, a small update on Maria de Villota's recovery, and an interview with Frank Williams.

[Rainmaster]

From an Autosport column this week by David Evans about his top WRC moments, (posted for Bradman of course): "It's not often that I find myself in one of rally town's better hotels, but in Leon, Mexico a couple of years ago, that happened to be the case. You can always tell when your bed's in the right place, like you can when you're eating in the right place, because Citroen and/or the FIA is there too. This time, it was Citroen.

Kimi Raikkonen had rolled out of the 2010 Rally Mexico in pretty spectacular fashion and, word had it, he was already out of town and sipping a cold one five miles high somewhere across the Atlantic. Wrong. But the cold one was right.

He was sipping it in my hotel bar. I slipped in for a commiserating late-night pint with Raikkonen's co-driver and fellow roller Kaj Lindstrom – a Finn I've known throughout his career alongside Tapio Laukkanen, Tommi Makinen and Nathalie Barratt. Lindstrom was as amusingly dry as usual. Not long later, his driver put down his pool cue, joined us and joined in. It wasn't long before Kimi was asking the stories of WRC seasons passed. Before adding a few stories of his own about living in Essex in his early career. He was completely down to earth and a thoroughly decent and amusing fella to share a pint with."

[BradSpeedMan]

Rainmaster, on 12 July 2012 - 05:21 AM, said:

From an Autosport column this week by David Evans about his top WRC moments, (posted for Bradman of course): "It's not often that I find myself in one of rally town's better hotels, but in Leon, Mexico a couple of years ago, that happened to be the case. You can always tell when your bed's in the right place, like you can when you're eating in the right place, because Citroen and/or the FIA is there too. This time, it was Citroen.

Kimi Raikkonen had rolled out of the 2010 Rally Mexico in pretty spectacular fashion and, word had it, he was already out of town and sipping a cold one five miles high somewhere across the Atlantic. Wrong. But the cold one was right.

He was sipping it in my hotel bar. I slipped in for a commiserating late-night pint with Raikkonen's co-driver and fellow roller Kaj Lindstrom – a Finn I've known throughout his career alongside Tapio Laukkanen, Tommi Makinen and Nathalie Barratt. Lindstrom was as amusingly dry as usual. Not long later, his driver put down his pool cue, joined us and joined in. It wasn't long before Kimi was asking the stories of WRC seasons passed. Before adding a few stories of his own about living in Essex in his early career. He was completely down to earth and a thoroughly decent and amusing fella to share a pint with."

[AleHop]

A pint of what?