TBK-Light.com

at least 70% of F1 audience at the time stopped watching because the "hero" perished on the track, only racing enthusiasts stayed and the figures decreased more and more but it was not related to safety, just boredom

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

I wholeheartedly agree with you. Put simply: F1 is too safe already. No more grass, no more gravel. High cockpit-walls that will be even higher this year and therefore creating new safety hazards when the view is reduced. Hans and everything. It has to be a freak accident to actually hurt a driver. Look at Kubica in Montreal or other massive shunts. They just walk away. But you'll never get rid of freak accidents by definition, no matter how safe you make it. However, you end up making the sport completely unattractive, predictable and boring.

i assume it will only be for bikes, WSBK is supposed to return to Monza this year.

Fuck closed cockpits.

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RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

It's also for 2017, by which time Monza might not be paying Bernie's paymasters enough to keep its place on the calendar anyway ... because F1.

Just to add a remark: HANS is the best bloody invention in race cars ever.

It is ugly though, but it has prevented more injuries than any other innovation.
Maybe closed cockpits is the next HANS, but we will not know if it isn't tried out.

You don't really notice HANS till they get out of the car anyway.

Closed cockpits is the same as seatbelts, rollcages/hoops and helmets in the past. I can see Paul of the past saying fuck all those as well

Sauber stuck enhanced cockpit protection on their cars two races after Wendlinger's accident at Monaco in 1994, and a near two full seasons ahead of the FIA mandate for introduction in 1996. They looked ugly and cumbersome, and drivers complained about the reduction in peripheral vision. But everyone got used to them. An introduction of a more advanced system which improves head protection isn't the end of the world like some are suggesting.

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BTCC Pick Em's Champion 2010
Formula Fun Cup Champion 2013
http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk

The two can't be compared, I guess we'll just have to wait and see, the renders of the Merc system were not too bad.

Irony does have a major habbit of biting people in the arse though, you know the old saying, solving one problem creates two more.

I know exactly what you mean Kals, but to me the difference is that the side head impact at the time was actually an obvious concern and F1 and motor sport WERE lucky not to have had more incidents up till that era ( there were still quite a lot of nasty incidents of drivers banging the side of their head so that was a legitimate concern).

Where as objects entering the cockpit and hitting the drivers during and since that time is incredibly low. That is the main difference I am trying to state. Side impact was not uncommon, getting hit flush on the head is.

Interesting new career for Robert Doornbos! http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns32954.html

not surprising coming from a driver that came from the red light

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

Oh now I finally understand his nickname 'Bobby D'.

"shaped like a real doorknobs"

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"Indy doesn't give you a second chance. You have to earn it."

After racing against Bourdais he should be used to handling big dicks.

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BTCC Pick Em's Champion 2010
Formula Fun Cup Champion 2013
http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk

FTFY

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"Indy doesn't give you a second chance. You have to earn it."

Funny how Sauber used to care about their drivers. Now they don't care how many of them they screw over every season.

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"Indy doesn't give you a second chance. You have to earn it."

uh Kurt?
[tweet]https://twitter.com/KurtBusch/status/691825924766056448[/tweet]

You're spot on, Max Mosley himself said that TV was the real lever for safety, because nowadays, when a driver dies, he does so live, in the living room of hundreds of millions.

But then, is the goal to aim for zero fatalities? I work in the offshore construction industry and the publicly announced goal is that while small injury rate has to remain below a certain target, fatalities are definitely unacceptable.

Should motor racing be held to the same standards? We all have different opinions of that but I believe it shouldn't. Death is a sibling of motorsport. It's ingrained into its very reason to exist. It should never come from gross negligence of course, but it should be accepted by all as an inevitability and not be fought against every day and in every little aspect.

Because ultimately, death risk adds something to how I enjoy the sport. When the Indy 500 starts, I have a deep respect for these 33 men because one of them almost certainly won't walk away unscathed. I enjoyed Suzuka 2014 pre-crash because during the Rosberg/Hamilton fight, the two were pushing hard in dangerous conditions, putting their lives on the line for the title. Bahrain fight was enjoyable, but lacked that added risk factor. It just looks bland to me compared to the above. I dare anyone here to say that the Vettel/Alonso move in Curva Grande would've been nearly as exciting if it were in Yas Marina with a white line and a mile run-off on the side instead of grass, a fence and trees.

A lot of that special excitement has disappeared in most the F1 as it is practiced nowadays, due to both circuits and cars safety. At some point, we need to know where to draw a line before sucking it all out.

Someone in the Autosport forum put it nicely:


It's no surprise that among alpine skiing downhill is the most popular format. It's no surprise that so many are into extreme sports (including motorsport). But it's surprising that FIA doesn't seem to realize this. Their intentions to increase safety are well understood, but if they forget the idea of why motorsport exists altogether, they are damaging the whole essence of the sport.