Do drivers sneeze?
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During a practice session this weekend, someone on twitter asked @5live what happens if a driver has to sneeze during the race. Unfortunately it wasn’t answered, but made me wonder. As it’s nearly impossible to keep your eyes opened whilst sneezing, a driver could actually crash because of sneezing (I doubt you can drive through Eau Rogue with your eyes closed).
Has this ever happened in any series?
I don’t think I’ve ever sneezed while driving on the road. I used to have epileptic blackouts when I was young, but they never happened when I used to drive round in fields. Perhaps it’s a focus thing.
I always wondered what must happen when drivers get an eyelash stuck in their eye. Must be a nightmare!
Well, I’m not an F1 driver, but I race Go karts and have sneezed before on track. There is a difference though in sneezing in a 60 mph go kart and a 180 mph f1 car. Its annoying and can cause an accident, A kid sneezed while scrubbing his tires and lost it, jumping over a dirt mound and going into a fence. I sneezed on a straight and it didn’t do anything. But the worst is having an Eyelash stuck, its SOOOOOO annoying, and you cant focus at all! Sometimes you close that eye and hope for the best, but its still pretty bad.
Well we know that drivers have thrown up in their helmets before, so I don’t see why they wouldn’t sneeze. I don’t recall any F1 drivers attributing an accident to a poorly-timed sneeze, however. The most hilarious (albeit genuine) excuse for an accident was Johnny Herbert’s one year at Monza, where it transpired that a mechanic had left a spanner in the cockpit, which had wedged under the brake pedal!
(Shameless self promotion alert)
I mentioned that in my weirdest retirements article. I thought Webber’s burnt bottom at Suzuka 04 was the best inconveniencing injury!
Also Ned didnt Nigel Mansell have a fuel leak into his car once that caused burns? or am I mistaken?
We do know that drivers puke *cough Mark Webber* but im not sure about sneeze
Yeah that did happen to Mansell, on his debut I think, but it didn’t cause him to retire. Heat burns are much worse than chemical burns of course
Ha! Can you imagine that as an excuse for retiring?
“And we’re back at the pits with Ted now, talking to Trulli who’s just had his eighth retirement of the season…
Yeah I was just accelerating out of turn eleven and some dust of the kerb got right in my helmet…”
I think Piquet vomited at Las Vegas en route to the championship….
Ironically, he predicted he’d vomit driving at Caesar’s Palace, and surely enough…..
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