timbo wrote:ISLAMATRON wrote:Good Lord that is scary, hope he is fully ok. Are open cockpits soon to be on the way out? How much trouble would a fighter jet style cockpit be to incorperate?
Well, in Massa's case it IS a freak accident. Not much can be improved really except the cockpit. However, I don't think canopy is automatically safer - there's possibility of it locking and preventing driver from escaping the car, esp in upside down position.
IMHO raced windshield and drag-racer style roll protection is safest of all.
Two drivers in six days being injured (minimum) by a part separating from another car and entering the cockpit is no longer a freak accident. It's time to take notice. And remember- the part could have bounced this way instead of that and ended up in the crowd.
In F2, hub tethers would have saved Henry Surtees. That wasn't just a wheel that hit him- it was a wheel, hub and (unless they run inboards) brake disc and caliper. That's not a light piece of gear. From various comments elsewhere, there has been a spate of hub separations in F2 lately and it will be looked at.
In Massa's case, from what I haver seen and has been reported, it really looks like what hit him was a spring. Popular opinion is it came from the back Ruben's car. I don't know the exact Brawn setup, but I would have thought that all spring/damper arrangements were coil-overs to save space. In that arrangement it would be almost impossible for the spring to separate. However, I don't claim to be an expert in Brawn suspension layouts.
If the spring and damper are separate units, it would be easy to restrain the spring with something as simple as good old fashioned lockwire. Maybe the regs need to be modified so that each part is affixed to the car in at least one end in a way that minimises the chance of the part separating from the car.
In addition, the tyres-with-a-conveyor-belt may have done more harm than good. Notwithstandinng the HANS device, there was a visible yellow imprint of Massa's helmet on the belt after the impact.
Positives- the tub retained enough integrity that he was not more seriously injured with for example damage to his legs/feet.
We can't make it safe- but we can make it less dangerous.
In any event- all the best for a speedy and complete recovery, Felipe.