I have heard a story that ties in with the electric shock theory from a totally different source. According to some Italian media outlets, Ferrari have been told somewhere down the line there was an electrical discharge and the Ferrari doctor says the behaviour and treatment since completely confirm it. The memory loss is caused by the shock which creates a "white noise" to the brain and it takes a long time for the "noise" to stop. I can;t remember the name of the syndrome, it was this morning i was reading about it. Anyway, The story goes that the reason the McLaren communication has been pathetic and not adding up is the FIA trying to bury it knowing that if it gets out the hybrid systems almost killed one of the sports biggest stars this close to the season, then the fallout from that is so huge they will do whatever it takes to hide it for now and treat it as an isolated incident with McLaren to work out the cause.
If thats true, then you think that they would have kept other drivers out of the car until rectified. JB was in the seat the following day.
An old F1 driver Fabrizio Barbazza said he was told it was an electric discharge of 600watts and that the FIA are keeping it quiet. Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault have 5 safety walls for electric shock, Honda are said to only have 3 as they incorporated them etc.
I don't buy the electric shock theory. No way would Magnussen or Button be happy to jump in the car as soon as was possible, if it randomly electrocuted their team-mate the day before. And McLaren-Honda surely wouldn't take the risk of lying to a driver, its PR suicide and kills any working relationship.
Ferrari were able to ignore driver safety back in 2012 without a media whisper thanks to the FIA. It was only thanks to Dr Hartstein did we ever find out that he was driving an unsafe car which the FIA and Ferrari didn't seem to give a crap about. Alonso didn't seem to care much for the final stint of the season for his own safety, resulting in a possible dangerous outcome which could've ended badly and rocked F1 to the core.
Or perhaps they quickly found exactly what caused it and were super confident it couldn't happen a second time?
Gary Hartstein @former_f1doc 13 May You know that F1 cars are equipped with extricable seats. This allows the driver to be removed from his car IN HIS SEAT, minimising movement Gary Hartstein @former_f1doc 13 May A Sid Watkins inspired advance, may I add. Anyway, to show how lax the supervision of this critical component of thw safety package is... Gary Hartstein @former_f1doc 13 May ...was informed on Thursday of the GP of India that mods during the season rendered both Ferrari seats impossible to remove from the chassis Gary Hartstein @former_f1doc 13 May This situation was not corrected by Brazil. No idea (obviously) if he's on top of the situation by now. Gary Hartstein @former_f1doc 13 May Sorry Fernando and Felipe, but this wasn't on the list of what I was allowed to do! Car was unsafe for performance boost, so illegal by FIA's own laws. It's just like failing a crash test and allowing a driver in the car.
slightly embarrassing... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/mo...o-did-not-suffer-concussion-during-crash.html
With the Ferrari thing, I don't believe the team knew it was unsafe as a result of modifications, but it was exacerbated by substandard scrutineering, which is more what I think Hartstein was getting at. In this case, the problem is with a highly complicated electrical system, not simply a too large piece of carbon fibre. I don't believe Honda could diagnose the problem, check there were no other ways it could have been triggered, and engineer a solution the drivers would be comfortable with, overnight.
Very much depends on the issue. Let's say for a rough example and speculation that it could have been something to do with the seal to the ers they were having trouble with was the issue, fluid got somewhere it wasn't supposed to, causes a short or power surge somewhere through the car that transferred to Alonso. Surely a temporary comfortable solution would be "we won't run with the seal leaking at all, we will pull the car off at the first sign of it". That seal as an example needs the engine out to sort, might explain why the car was pulled rather than the relatively minor damage repaired and KMag or Button being called in for the rest of the day for a few more super valuable laps if it had been as simple as McLaren said. Would also explain why they were able to run the next day if it was something like that.
I'm confused so probably need this explaining to me like I am 6 year old. Wouldnt Alonso have to be grounded to complete an earth to be electrocuted - hence why we alwyas took the piss out of Chiltern's camp leap from the car? Or is voltage and current differnet? I'm in shock already.....
Simplistically voltage will flow from positive to negative via the source of least resistance. 'Earth' isn't necessary. To use a road car as an example, the negative of the battery is attached to the conductive metal chassis to reduce the number of cables required. So technically to get a shock you need to be the path of east resistance between a positive cable and the chassis. Carbon Fibre is conductive, not as conductive as a steel chassis. I don't know if Carbon Fibre is a lower resistance than a sweaty race suit but I can understand how in a fault condition electricity could flow through the driver back to the battery. One other thing to remember is that every gram of weight reduction a team can make will help in performance (enable team to redistribute weight). So reducing the number of electrical cables, their conductors and insulation will be high on the teams wish list. It could be that McHonda went a little too far with the reduction in their electrical cables systems and enabled an unforeseen fault condition to occur. I guess there is a small possibility that the instrumentation fitted did not measure a power loss from the batteries/generators and hence McHonda didn't realise they had an electrical problem but I doubt that very much. PS Alonso was not 'electrocuted' as electrocution is 'death by electricity' he could have received an electric shock.
