2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bull!!

[joecct]

Just saw the video. Wow. I am amazed the Jules is still alive.

Thank Dr. Watson

[solovsfett]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

Just saw the video. Wow. I am amazed the Jules is still alive.

I just saw it myself, fan video. I don't think I ever want to see that again. Jules could have been decapitated if he'd have been a few inches closer to the tractor. Just an awful awful accident.

I will say though, I disagree with some who are calling for closed cockpits each time there's a bad accident.

[MattS]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

I just saw it myself, fan video. I don't think I ever want to see that again. Jules could have been decapitated if he'd have been a few inches closer to the tractor. Just an awful awful accident.

I will say though, I disagree with some who are calling for closed cockpits each time there's a bad accident.

Agreed on both accounts.

[Russell Jaslow]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

I did not know this. However I would highly doubt a Russian owned team would not run two cars in the first modern Russian GP.

I forgot it's a Russian owned team. {Hey, Russell, it's right in the name, you dumb, dumb...}

Yeah, they are running two cars for their home GP. No doubt.

[Russell Jaslow]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

I just saw it myself, fan video. I don't think I ever want to see that again. Jules could have been decapitated if he'd have been a few inches closer to the tractor. Just an awful awful accident.

Or a few inches further away from the tractor, and his head never receives a blow.

[Timothy A]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

I've been a Ferrari fan my whole F1 fan watching. But not after this season and not again until Vettel is gone. I have zero, none, nada, no use for Vettel!!!! *** is Ferrari thinking? This year has proven that Vettel has been overrated by a dominate car in the past seasons. I assume this means that Alonso is gone. Ugh. I'm not sure I can even watch this weekend and Suzaka is one of my favorite tracks. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

I could not agree more. My son has gone into a funk over Vettel coming to Ferarri and the assumption Alonso is leaving. The only thing positive about Vettel's move is I might get to hear the German and Italian national anthems back to back again, it will remind me of the good old times. I am holding out hope Ferrari pushes Kimi out the door. Ferrari needs 2 top drivers like Mercedes has.

Poor Bianchi is all I can say. God bless him and his family.

[manurespreader]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

terrible accident and on top of that:

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/29501069

[solovsfett]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

Or a few inches further away from the tractor, and his head never receives a blow.

True.

on a related note, Villeneuve is talking about rules changes to bring out Safety Cars each time there is an accident and for once I agree with him.

[Russell Jaslow]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

I could not agree more. My son has gone into a funk over Vettel coming to Ferarri and the assumption Alonso is leaving. The only thing positive about Vettel's move is I might get to hear the German and Italian national anthems back to back again, it will remind me of the good old times. I am holding out hope Ferrari pushes Kimi out the door. Ferrari needs 2 top drivers like Mercedes has.

Do you really think Alonso would accept Vettel as a teammate?

Besides, read this: http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/f1...eaves-ferrari/

Alonso got outplayed at his own political game. Karma is a b*tch.

[Scott Biggar]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

Just saw the video. Wow. I am amazed the Jules is still alive.

My question about the video is why is the flagman in the tower still waving a green flag? The tv broadcast showed a local yellow so why is the flag person still showing green?

It is scary video. The ground workers start to react before Bianchi's car enters frame but I'm sure the crane operator had no time to see it coming. The workers are lucky they didn't get severely injured as well.

[Russell Jaslow]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

My question about the video is why is the flagman in the tower still waving a green flag? The tv broadcast showed a local yellow so why is the flag person still showing green?

Because it is BEYOND the incident. Albeit, by a small amount. Another angle of the scene clearly shows this.

F1 rules (in fact, most European racing series, including Canada, use this rule) has the first flag station past the incident wave the green flag indicating to the drivers that the track is now green from that point on. You have to understand that flag stations only control the area from their station to the next station. They do NOT control any area before their station. Of course, drivers know this, and thus understand the signals.

Station 12 is past the point of the incident. They don't control the incident, Station 11 does. And Station 11 was displaying the double waved yellows as indicated by the FIA. Station 12 controls the area from their station to Station 13. Thus, they wave the green flag because that area is green.

It wasn't until Bianchi crashed and Control issued a Safety Car did Station 12 display the yellow flag because now the entire track was yellow.

Station 12 followed proper protocol.

[Russell Jaslow]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

True.

on a related note, Villeneuve is talking about rules changes to bring out Safety Cars each time there is an accident and for once I agree with him.

I don't know about every incident. I don't want to turn this into Indy car. Especially since a lot of F1 circuits have hooks that can reach over to the racing surface, which American tracks don't have.

But, certainly in the rain where it's a prime impact zone, the SC should be mandatory.

[MattS]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

Do you really think Alonso would accept Vettel as a teammate?

IMO, if he's smart he would but I do not think he will. I think he ends up at McLaren in a eqaully crappy car with Denis who he cannot stand.

I don't know about every incident. I don't want to turn this into Indy car. Especially since a lot of F1 circuits have hooks that can reach over to the racing surface, which American tracks don't have.

But, certainly in the rain where it's a prime impact zone, the SC should be mandatory.

Agreed. I do not think that SC needs to be deployed on most instances. It should be as it is a judgement call by race control. Maybe they need to error on the side of caution more but I don't think we need a SC every time some bum like Maldonado runs off into the gravel.

[Timothy A]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

IMO, if he's smart he would but I do not think he will. I think he ends up at McLaren in a eqaully crappy car with Denis who he cannot stand.

I agree as well. I'm just not sure how factual that article is, seems to be one guy's vision of what happened based on nothing.

The S/C should be sent out anytime there is a recovery vehicle operating inside the walls of the race course itself. It should also be sent out when course workers are scrambling around clearing debris. Safety first. That would have prevented this incident.

[MattS]

Re: 2014 Open Wheel Racing - if it's white smoke, it's not a good sign & that's no bu

I agree as well. I'm just not sure how factual that article is, seems to be one guy's vision of what happened based on nothing.

I had also wondered about the facts of this article. If I recall correctly from my reading from this morning, I don't remember the author even mentioning any quoted people and it sounded like a lot of speculation (maybe true maybe not).

The S/C should be sent out anytime there is a recovery vehicle operating inside the walls of the race course itself. It should also be sent out when course workers are scrambling around clearing debris. Safety first. That would have prevented this incident.

I don't agree with all of this. Does a SC really need to be deployed if some knucklehead like Maldonado goes off into the gravel or a runoff area during dry conditions? I don't think so. The races will become way too much like NASCAR or Indycar. I think that if a car can either safely be retrieved or left in postition as long as local yellows are displayed and their is not some other dangerous component (rain, fog, gravel, etc) then no SC is needed.

IMO this was a freak accident that was cause by Jules driving above the cars capability for the conditions present and not heeding the yellow flags. Even if a SC had been deployed Jules might have been trying to catch up to the SC and done the exact same thing.