The only other occasion I can remember a wheel flying down the pit lane was the 2010 Hungarian GP, Mercedes were fined $50,000 for it. The crew who work on the cars are under immense pressure to get the car serviced in two seconds. When McLaren broke the pitstop record last season they showed where he'd have come out with an average pitstop, with the quick stop it was just ahead of Vettel, with a normal one he was well behind and there was only a couple of tenths difference. Webber's stop was already slow and the lollipop would've been aware of how tight it was with the two Mercedes, clearly he shouldn't have let him go but it's easy to panic in that situation, he doesn't want to be responsible for costing the team a 1-2. These things can happen unfortunately.
If I accidentally smash someone's car, does that mean I shouldn'#t be liable for the damage? Good to know. AG, you and Tomcat are fighting a very weird and silly point here. The guy might be off work, losing money, of course he'll need compensation. Stop being argumentative for the sake. Also, REP is s***. The sooner people stop giving me it the better my life will be! Well actually it'll just be the same, because I don't care.
What a blunt statement. Its more complex than that. If you work in an environment where every person involved has a contract that states the risks, its a bit different, isn't it? But who cares anyways..... Double standards and hypocrisy is nothing new in this forum. I am pretty sure the injured man will be well cared for, financially and health-wise. There are insurances companies involved too in F1 i guess.......
He'll be getting paid by FOM while he's off sick. I'm not arguing for the sake of it, the suing culture is a disgrace.
FOM would of made sure he signed a contract saying he understands the risks and that he cannot sue any teams as he accepts those risks. He would also of had personal health and life insurance in a job like this supplied by FOM so lets not kid ourselves that he isn't getting well compensated. Lets not be stupid, he will be taken well care of until he is better and it's all being paid for, and NO! he cannot sue Red Bull for millions since he wavered those rights by accepting the risks of his own contract with FOM which he signed. What ever next? footballers to sue other players for GBH on the pitch? Get over yourselves PLEASE!
I'm not sure how any of that works in the world of F1, but many people have highly dangerous jobs and are still entitled to compensation for injury. I'd imagine that since it happened in Germany, then whatever laws apply there will determine his rights. I have no clue though, I'm far from being a law expert. I'm annoyed that the cameramen are being moved to the pitwall though... that's going to provide some pretty naff coverage of stops.
It was a accident, accident happen and I'm sure FOM is covered to make sure that the poor guy gets sick pay until he's back to working order. There's far to much suing in this world and I fear that by the time I'm old and grey all my friends will be suing me for accidentally breaking one of their mugs, or stepping on their toes
Ehhh... So when you buy a car there's no possible risk of having a crash in it? More crashes every day on the road than there are wheels falling off and hitting people in a F1 pitlane Ahhhh, so there we have it, the accountant of the tv company speaks.... Red Bull should be given a massive fine, and most of that should go to the guy hurt by their incompetence and negligence.
You're an idiot if you believe he should sue red bull. It was an honest mistake. It's people like you who are part of the problem in the world today, believing that anyone should be sued for anything.
If he did claim compensation, you could hardly call if frivolous. He had his collar bone smashed... It's not like he'd be claiming for whiplash after a 10mph fender-bender.
Oh no... Report me to the Daily Mail, it's the only solution If you hit somebodies door in a car park, it's an honest mistake, but you should pay for the damage. A human life is supposed to be more precious than a hunk of metal... Or maybe you don't think so, in which case you might be the problem with the world
This isn't a public road, it's a racing circuit, and the sign on entry to a race track says 'motrsport is dangerous, enter at your own risk', pretty much a disclaimer. Everyone KNOWS the pits are a dangerous place so the people he should sue, if he were to sue, would be his employers, FOM, as it's they who have put him in a dangerous enviroment. It could be argued that it was his fault for not being aware of his surroundings when he knew something like this could happen. TBH this all seems like the usual anti-RBR BS to me.
That's a fair point. And I agree, Im amazed that the media don't wear protective head gear and fire-proofs in the manner the pit teams do but I guess the FIA banning them completely is a better solution.
If anybody were to payout compensation, it would be FOM, not RBR. His employer had him in dangerous conditions without proper protective gear. Not sure why people are looking to have a go at RBR, Miggs... it could have been any team on the grid in that situation.
You just have to look at Le Man to see the difference. The media in the pitlane all have overalls on and head protection. It should be common sense if everyone else around you is dressed up in safety gear.
Everyone involved in motorsport knows it's dangerous =/= they waive any right to compensation in the event of an injury. No-one, no matter what industry they work in, should spend their jobs constantly worried about getting injured and no longer being able to perform that job. That's why we have such stringent safety requirements in the first place. I accept that the Red Bull mechanics made a mistake in the heat of the moment in a high-pressure environment - but it's still a mistake that they made. The cameraman wasn't deliberately looking to get injured, he had no reason to expect the tyre to hit him. Another thing to note is that - albeit for good reasons, and through no-one's fault - he had restrictions placed upon his ability to avoid it (I'd imagine he couldn't hear the tyre bounce since he was wearing the necessary ear protection; I don't know about his peripheral vision but since it struck him pretty much in the back, don't think that would have helped much). I don't think he should take them for every cent he can because that's another form of greed which I disagree with wholeheartedly. Whether you're on the bottom of the pile or on top, you have a responsibility to not take money from taxpayers which does not belong to you and you have an obligation not to strive for excess wealth you don't deserve. I do think that Red Bull should be the ones paying his costs in hospital because those have to be paid somehow and their negligence is responsible for his injuries. Moving forward, and perhaps looking at the bigger picture here, I'd have to check the footage again to see if the right-rear mechanic gives the lollipop man the OK. I'm fairly certain he doesn't, which begs the question of why the lollipop man gives Webber clearance to go if he doesn't know the car is ready. (If he does, then it obviously begs the question of why the mechanic gave the all-clear). Now, I'm aware that we had issues with Ferrari's attempt at an automated system so I'm not going to suggest that as a solution, but perhaps we need to look at the pressures the lollipop men are under. We've had collisions in the pitlane before in spite of the fact they're placed in such a position that they are able and expected to see cars coming down the pit lane, and this isn't the first time this year a tyre's come loose, which are supposed to be their responsibility. A thought I came up with while I was out for a walk just now was a mandatory stationary time for pit-stops. 5 seconds, perhaps. This would allow teams a little leeway in terms of time spent on changing tyres, in order to allow them to confirm they are fully attached before they are sent out. The downside is that we would lose the pit-stop battles between the teams but in some ways this would help place the emphasis on the racing again, since the teams would be spending similar if not identical amounts of time in the pitlane. Another is there being a red light / green light system operated by Charlie Whiting where only if the light is green can the driver pull away. The light would be red if there is a danger of there being a coming together with another car. Helps reduce the risk of unsafe releases. The issues with this would be we'd lose those dramatic battles down the pitlane and safety car situations would be mad. Just my two cents on all of the above. I'm fully aware that a lot of people are going to disagree with my opinion. I do actually think that in some ways we suffer from a litigation culture but in some ways we also suffer from people refusing to take responsibilities. There's a reason that those sorts of cases turn up in things like Private Eye every couple of weeks. This is a forum though, you're entitled to disagree, and I'm glad people do because it would be boring as hell otherwise! (Just one thing, whoever it was that gave me negative rep just for agreeing with Fred, that was really childish.)
Because success breeds jealous resentment, it could have been anyone else, and if it were I doubt ther'd be such a "lenient penalty" "should be punished harder" "should sue RBR" bollocks, we'd be talking more about the restrictions and the proposed lowering of the pitlane speed limit (please no)
