Sometimes the sport goes through periods where there is little tragedy and I guess it's easy to get complacent. The violence of Huberts accident is fortunately very rare, however I hope it makes them.look at circuit design and especially track limits as the car that hit him was outside the white lines. Not sure if that was because he ran wide to avoid the rebounding car or was just taking a line outside of track limits. Bringing back proper track edges will slow the cars down as the escape margin is that much less, I also think they will look at the exit of Eau Rouge/Radillion to see if they can move the barriers back but I think they are restricted because of the geography. Hopefully they won't change the main profile of the turn as drivers do enjoy the challenge, though as it is now flat for most, could they do something to tighten it slightly just so drivers have to think about it a bit more and it is not automatically flat?
There are just some accidents you can’t legislate against. From what I gather he was t-boned by a car doing 170 mph. I’m not sure how you could ever protect a driver in those circumstances.
We talk about gravel trips being a proper penalty for drivers going off, perhaps they would also help to prevent cars rebounding back towards or onto the track.
The old gravel trap and run off would have stopped the secondary impact that caused the tragic injuries, but it's also worth remembering that it was the old gravel traps that used to line both sides of the corner that caused Zonta, Zanardi and Villeneuve to all flip over because the cars dug in, but theh did all survive It's a hard one to judge what's best, I just think currently the large asphalt run offs are not the solution and are bad for racing generally.
I was at Eau Rouge for Zonta and Villeneuve’s crashes, and still to this day have no idea how they survived.
It's particularly shocking to see a driver killed just through the sheer violence of an incident overwhelming the crash structures. Recent tragedies have all been head injuries. Freak incidents where new regulations mean we can feel pretty confident it'll never happen again. I'm sure the official report into this will suggest some improvements, but I think this is a nasty reminder that there are some risks we can never totally eliminate.
They really don't come much worse than that. Similar to Zanardi's crash in that it's utterly sickening. Gotta feel for the family and the team. That was a horrible sequence of events.
Can’t go knee jerk on it though. It’s a tragedy, but in context, more are killed or injured playing rugby these days, and certainly in boxing and the like. Motor sport is pretty safe all things considered, but these things will occasionally happen. Hope Charles goes on to win tomorrow, as the two of them were mates.
Between this tragedy and Jules Bianchi’s these are two personal blows for Charles. Such a young driver to have known such awful events. I wish him luck tomorrow.
I think if anything, they might need to rethink that runoff area. It was a bit of a terrible set of cirumstance, but anything they can do to help prevent that happening again can't be a bad thing. Terrible, terrible accident.
Going by the fact he won both races in the double header in Baku three days after his father died, I think he’ll use it to motivate him.
Just seen this, I was at an airshow yesterday. Terrible news, RIP Hubert. It is a reminder why some of the rules exist, They have been built up through years of experience and tragic injuries etc, they are not there to ruin the spectacle. There will always be risks. More are killed on the road than on the race track. 2,000 seafarers lose their lives each year (6 every day of the year), approximately 360,000 people drown each year. All tragedies, in most cases just not watched by an audience who then are rightly shocked by the ferocity of speed. The airborne F3 crash in November was a remarkable escape but another fierce reminder of the risks. No one wants to see these things but they are happening all the time. Yesterday, I met a 10 year old girl with brittle bone disease and sporting a broken arm, who after 3 breaks the surgeon has said he can not repair again. I don't know what I am trying to say, just that there will always be risks.
It's a tragedy but these things happen, as motorsport is dangerous. Let's be honest, that's part of the attraction for it's competitors, and some spectators. It's a thrill seek, and sometimes the thing that gives it the thrill reaches out and snatches someone. Sometimes they're just a 'racing incident' and can't really be legislated against unless you don't race, or impose maximum speed limits nowhere near what they are atm. I don't think it was an accident like Bianchi or Massa's near fatal where improvements in operational procedure or a safety device can be added, as we can't do anything about inertia.
That start reminds me of F1 on the PS4, with Max being the noob that thinks he's, ermmmm, Max Verstappen? Lando got a good start. Haas 6th & 7th, I foresee contact.
