Comments on: How Formula 1 can improve safety following the Heikki Kovalainen crash

By: Video Capture Device

Video Capture Device — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 18:50:39 +0000

This may be your greatest post on here!!

By: Dyson Dc33

Dyson Dc33 — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:38:10 +0000

This post couldnt be more on the money!!!

By: hot

hot — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:39:24 +0000

That was very revealing post.

By: Toncho

Toncho — Sat, 03 May 2008 08:50:20 +0000

Anyone know if KOV is going to be ready for Turkey? Last year KUB was obligied to step off for one race. If that is the case who is the replacement? DLR? Thanks

By: Sush

Sush — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:19:10 +0000

Chunter, incorrect Coultard didn’t brake his car… it was quite clearly someone else fault.

By: Sush

Sush — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:13:54 +0000

Ninguen, I was actually being facetious and sarcastic regarding the nose cones on F1 cars.

Its impossible to change that aspect of the car in such a dramatic way, and making the nose stronger for a frontal impact would make it much more dangerous in a skirmish on track for position.

An F1 car is designed to almost turn to dust upon heavy impact, thereby decreasing the chance of large debris smacking the drivers in the face.

POW RIGHT IN THE KISSER.

By: chunter

chunter — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:49:12 +0000

A quick response to Sush’s statement is that Coulthard already broke his car on such a run-off, so in a sense, you are only allowed so many mistakes. (That means there should be a tall curb and some growing grass in between the track and the run-off.)

I remember reading about a new barrier being developed made from plastics that is intended to prevent tire-wall burial, if I find a link explaining it I will comment again.

I’m sure work will begin on that corner, considering all the other after-thought changes they’ve made to the facility. While watching the race, I also wondered what would happen if a car lost grip during New Holland chicane?

By: Michael K

Michael K — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:07:23 +0000

Tarmac would’ve worked a lot better than gravel by providing the grip for the three braking wheels to slow the car down. At that speed the car doesn’t get caught by the gravel as we could see, gravel only works well at slower speeds for F1 cars.

By: ninguen

ninguen — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:24:40 +0000

There´s another problem with the tarmac/gravel trap discussion, many circuits are both used in races for cars and bikes, the motorbikes prefer the gravels trap, they are caught and stopped there and the driver gets a "softer" surface to fall, with the new tarmac run off areas they get heavier hits with the surface. But the cars tend to bounce and if they go flat in the corner the car almost fly and his speed ismostly unaffected, so we get diverging interests in here.
In the case of Kova i don´t think a tarmac area would do muhc better, just more space would be needed. Sush made a good comment, maybe remodelling the nose of the cars, so they aren´t like a knife would be better. Maybe also making the barriers not being in line in all the dimensions, i mean
_____ ______ ______
_______ ______ _____
So the car only could get one spot, the rest of the lines wouldn´t be new surface of pneumatic

By: Sush

Sush — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:36:32 +0000

so Heikki’s car knifed itself through the conveyor belt?, easy way to make F1 safer if thats the case, make the front end of the cars flat.

I do NOT like run off area’s. Having a huge stretch of tarmac round every turn in F1 is giving the drivers a "reset" button for mistakes.