OT Massive crash Haas F1 race this morning

moonlight machine · Nov 29, 2020

It was about as bad as I have ever seen, car ripped in half, huge fireball, driver Romain Grosjean completely engulfed in flame climbs over the Armco with the help of a safety worker who went into the fireball to help him. First reports say he has burns on his wrists and ankles as well as a few broken ribs. Very lucky to be alive.

Terry Keeley · Nov 29, 2020

How he emerged from that fire with just minimal injuries is incredible.

EmGo · Nov 29, 2020

Did the car on the left break an axle ? Looks like the barrier saved his ass, or he'da been a combo of Stan Fox and Salt Walther.

Makes you wonder if alcohol really is better.

Scruffy887 · Nov 29, 2020

Bad things happen when tires touch, and they happen very quickly. Glad driver could walk away.

eKretz · Nov 29, 2020

Gotta love a good fire suit. Glad he's all right.

EmGo · Nov 29, 2020

Scruffy887 said:
Bad things happen when tires touch, and they happen very quickly. Glad driver could walk away.

Tell me about it, ran midgets for fifteen years. But that wasn't a touch, car on the left did a right turn, directly across the track, slammed across the front of the Haas car, drove him into the wall. Luckily, barrier first, then the wall.

Still, seems like the fuel bladder should not have split apart ? I guess they are not that impact-proof ?

eKretz said:
Gotta love a good fire suit. Glad he's all right.

moonlight machine · Nov 29, 2020

EmanuelGoldstein said:
Did the car on the left break an axle ? Looks like the barrier saved his ass, or he'da been a combo of Stan Fox and Salt Walther.

Makes you wonder if alcohol really is better.

I say the Halo saved his life. He hit the LF of the car he was passing with his RR tire, turning him into the Armco. I don't think the fuel maters so much when the fuel bag gets ripped open.

EmGo · Nov 29, 2020

moonlight machine said:
I say the Halo saved his life. He hit the LF of the car he was passing with his RR tire, turning him into the Armco.

Oh, he's in the white car that made a right turn ? I thought he was in the camera car, oops.

His own fault then.

(Can't look again, suddenly it's a "private video". Oh well.)

Terry Keeley · Nov 29, 2020

Still gas in F1 unless they've changed recently?

Formula One car - Wikipedia.

Don't think methanol would be a big fire ball like that. Well it would be, except you wouldn't see it.

EmGo · Nov 29, 2020

Terry Keeley said:
Still gas in F1 unless they've changed recently?

You mean, "back to" ? The stuff they used to use wouldn't light if you put a blowtorch to it, and cost what, a thousand bucks a gallon or something ?

But no, I was wondering if alky really is safer, because you haven't seen anything like that at Indy for years. I think it really doesn't light as easy as gasoline.

eKretz · Nov 29, 2020

EmanuelGoldstein said:
Tell me about it, ran midgets for fifteen years. But that wasn't a touch, car on the left did a right turn, directly across the track, slammed across the front of the Haas car, drove him into the wall. Luckily, barrier first, then the wall.

Still, seems like the fuel bladder should not have split apart ? I guess they are not that impact-proof ?

That photo would have been even more iconic/epic if he had just put that thumb up a little higher when he saw the camera, haha.

Terry Keeley · Nov 29, 2020

EmanuelGoldstein said:
You mean, "back to" ? The stuff they used to use wouldn't light if you put a blowtorch to it, and cost what, a thousand bucks a gallon or something ?

But no, I was wondering if alky really is safer, because you haven't seen anything like that at Indy for years. I think it really doesn't light as easy as gasoline.

Yup, IIRC they did run alcohol back when, 80's maybe, like the turbos.

Not sure but Indy cars still run it I think, Moonlight would know.

As they say tho: "gas is for worshin' parts, alcohol's for drinkin' and nitro's for racin'", lol!

moonlight machine · Nov 29, 2020

Terry Keeley said:
Yup, IIRC they did run alcohol back when, 80's maybe, like the turbos.

Not sure but Indy cars still run it I think, Moonlight would know.

As they say tho: "gas is for worshin' parts, alcohol's for drinkin' and nitro's for racin'", lol!

Indy cars run ethanol with enough gasoline to denature it. Wouldn't want the crew drinking the stuff. They were going to run straight ethanol but the BATF shut that down straight away. The fuel bag in the old CART Indy cars was about 5x thicker than the one they are using now. In my opinion if the Dalara they are running now was snapped in half through the cell area the fuel bladder would split open straight away with similar results.

EmGo · Nov 29, 2020

moonlight machine said:
Indy cars run ethanol with enough gasoline to denature it.

Really ? Sprints and midgets run meth, and I was pretty sure Indy used to as well. Ethanol has a little more poop, is that why ?

Those guys are so dumb. First they get excited that the cars go too fast (rightfully), then they do stuff like that

The fuel bag in the old CART Indy cars was about 5x thicker than the one they are using now.

Great. Why do they do that stuff ? It's so predictably stupid

moonlight machine · Nov 29, 2020

EmanuelGoldstein said:
Really ? Sprints and midgets run meth, and I was pretty sure Indy used to as well. Ethanol has a little more poop, is that why ?

Those guys are so dumb. First they get excited that the cars go too fast (rightfully), then they do stuff like that

Great. Why do they do that stuff ? It's so predictably stupid

Follow the MONEY! The Ethanol people pay Indycar to run the stuff. As for the fuel cell, they never had a failure with the thick one so it must be thicker than it needs to be, right?

Thunderjet · Nov 29, 2020

Well Roger Penske is running the whole show now. If shit needs to get done, it will get done.

AFAIK Indy/usac has run alky since the Sachs/McDonald wreck in '63. (my folks were there and have some truly horrible pics.)

Indy did start running the big windscreen thingy, that I think is a step in the right direction.

I was watching the race this morning live, and got a sinking feeling when they would not show the scene live. Then they showed Roman sitting in the medical car, and I literally teared up for joy.

If you see the wreckage, you'll understand.

Thunderjet · Nov 29, 2020

"It is quite shocking to see the remnants" | Ted Kravitz reports from the site of Grosjean's crash - YouTube

The aftermath well reported on.

moonlight machine · Nov 29, 2020

Thunderjet said:
Well Roger Penske is running the whole show now. If shit needs to get done, it will get done.

AFAIK Indy/usac has run alky since the Sachs/McDonald wreck in '63. (my folks were there and have some truly horrible pics.)

Indy did start running the big windscreen thingy, that I think is a step in the right direction.

I was watching the race this morning live, and got a sinking feeling when they would not show the scene live. Then they showed Roman sitting in the medical car, and I literally teared up for joy.

If you see the wreckage, you'll understand.

Ethanol is Alky, it is corn alcohol, it will get you drunk. Methanol is wood alcohol, it will make you blind or kill you. That's why the BATF makes them put some gasoline in the ethanol, wouldn't want anyone drinking that untaxed corn liquor!

jz79 · Nov 29, 2020

Well, Roman went out of the sport with quite a bang

I was very relieved when they showed him next to medical car, and expected much worse when they intentionally didn't show the accident scene just as it was red flagged

I'm not a fan of those armco barriers to say the least, Kubicas accident that crippled him - when it just happened so that the armco was overlapped the wrong way so when he hit one section and slid along it into the next - he met the next segment edge on, and in this case - they had mounted them edge to edge (horizontally) with no overlap, the only defense would be that it was an escape road, but still, had they had extra strip covering that edge to edge section, this wouldn't have happened, it would have bounced and probably wouldn't even split in half, which would also mean that the fuel cell would have stayed intact...

what I'm curios about is what excuse they'll come up to explain him darting over the track like that on an opening lap, he already has had more than his share of accidents on starts to make these sort of moves, there was a piece of debris flying towards his right front (from another accident in front of him) before he darted over to the right, but I couldn't notice any signs of a puncture on that wheel, and he was holding his steering to the right, which wouldn't be so had he have the puncture and tried to keep it straight

Thunderjet · Nov 29, 2020

I was aware of the difference.

The reason EITHER on is used is the low flashpoint.

The biggest problem is that you can't see the flames if there is a fire.

When I pitted for a driver in the "Little 500", we had to refuel on the go. (this NEVER happens in sprint car racing.) We had a USAC official stand next to the car with a 5 gallon bucket of water to dilute the spill, if there was one. It was extremely effective.

Luckily, I was to short to refuel the car with the quick dump cans we had. I got to try to knock off the right side tires and get the done in less than 40 seconds.

One good, two bad......Sorry Benny.

OT Massive crash Haas F1 race this morning

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