Alonso's Crash

[Abarth]

ERS Shock would be quite strange, but not impossible. It could well be that parts of the steering wheel / comands are on another potential than the seat/car body.
This especially because there are quite some insulated electrical connections going to the steering wheel, not sharing car body (let's name it ground) potential.

[bauc]

I wonder if Alonso will drive on the last test, maybe he will get the last two days to give him some time to get back on 100%.

If not, K-MAG to step in?

[Del]

Hi,I've been reading this forum for a few years now,and decided to make a post,just to notice something that should be considered.

....

there are rumours (i dont agree with them, but they could be true) that alonso,
a) was feeling ill and fainted due to the illness,
b) he had an electric shock in the car which caused him to crash,
c) the car failed in some way which made veer to the right and hit the wall,
...
#ForzaAlonso!

Option A is out of the picture for good. If we look at the two photos above,you can clearly see,that Alonso reacted to the car going in to the right,he slamed on the brakes...So he didn't fainted.That's for sure.
The big question is,why he didn't react in any other way than slaming the brakes.As another member of the forum stated above,even after the hit,the car tires are pointing to the right.... and why the hell there's only one skid mark prior to the bump... my guess is because of the hard right steering input.
So if Alonso reacted (by pressing the brakes),why didn't he turned the steering wheel left.
My guess is that it's either C) - the car failed in some way..... or less likely but still possible B)he had an electric shock in the car... because there are still some scenarios that are plausible with him gettin' an ERS shock...

Another thing bothering me is the reaction of Mclaren.... verry loose on the details... sometimes refering to untrue facts... so this also points me to the fact that it's either a failure of a component that was overlook (ers or whatever) and might get them in trouble ,or a new failure but one that's gonna raise a lot of questions that they don't want to answer.

[alexx_88]

As mentioned before, the fact that there is only one skid mark suggests that something failed on the car. However, why is the steering wheel pointing right, surely he would have tried to steer the car away from the concrete wall, wouldn't he?

There are two contradicting facts:
1. There is one skid mark on the track.
2. From the way the steering wheel still points right and Vettel's recollection of the event, it's highly likely that he didn't do anything to avoid hitting the wall.

How do these two come together?

LE: Come to think about it, steering wheel to the right, he blacks out, slams the brakes, inside tire gets unloaded and leaves the skid mark. Only explanation that explains both '1' and '2'.

[Just_a_fan]

The steering wheel pointing to the right could be the result of the broken front right corner and or steering box.

[Abarth]

ERS Shock would be quite strange, but not impossible. It could well be that parts of the steering wheel / comands are on another potential than the seat/car body.
This especially because there are quite some insulated electrical connections going to the steering wheel, not sharing car body (let's name it ground) potential.

Here an old article about BMW Sauber F1 Car having this very issue:
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2008/8/8247.html

However, they said that the driver, due to the insulating effect of gloves and overall was not affected. Depends all from the voltage, the thickness and humidity of the fibres.

[SectorOne]

Maybe he just pulled a Maldonado fiddling with the wheel through the corner and did not pay attention and hit the wall in a weird way.
Because he's still turning right after the corner.

[Richard]

We can only see the steering wheel turned right when the car is stationary after the crash. The front wheels are pointing straight ahead. So we can conclude that the steering was broken by time the car came to a halt.

We do not know the steering wheel was turning right before or during the crash. The skid mark seems reasonably straight, more like a drift to the right rather than a deliberate turn.

[Bomber_Pilot]

We can only see the steering wheel turned right when the car is stationary after the crash. The front wheels are pointing straight ahead. So we can conclude that the steering was broken by time the car came to a halt.

We do not know the steering wheel was turning right before or during the crash. The skid mark seems reasonably straight, more like a drift to the right rather than a deliberate turn.

And it also really doesnt matter where the steering wheel is turned at after the crash (even without the broken steering) since drivers let go of the wheel before the crash.

[SectorOne]

We can only see the steering wheel turned right when the car is stationary after the crash. The front wheels are pointing straight ahead. So we can conclude that the steering was broken by time the car came to a halt.

We do not know the steering wheel was turning right before or during the crash. The skid mark seems reasonably straight, more like a drift to the right rather than a deliberate turn.

http://imgur.com/a/BJfWo

Check first image, wheel is pointing 90 degrees right while hes at the exit of the corner.

Maybe not 90 but its not straight by any means.

[Jonnycraig]

So in my mind there is a plausible explanation of something failing on the car, car hits concrete, driver concussed by high g impact, then driver feels old spine injury after getting over the shock of the impact so he decides to stay still.

But that doesn't tally with the above mentioned eyewitness reports of him being unresponsive with medical personnel for quite some time.

Something failing on the car, Alonso being knocked out for a short period, coming to in an agitated & concussed state and being taken to hospital for a CT and observation would fit pretty well with media and eyewitness reports, but then you have the reports that Alonso says he stayed fully conscious.

All rather strange really, but ho hum. More important than knowing exactly what happened is that he is being looked after fully and will hopefully recover fully from his reported concussion.

[turbof1]

Are we talking about the eye witnesses that were spectators watching 100m or further from the crash scene?

I'll reiterate: it's too soon to try to draw conclusions or otherwise hypothesize on the causes. I feel we should atleast give Alonso and the team the time to come out themselves with a statement.

[Richard]

http://imgur.com/a/BJfWo

Check first image, wheel is pointing 90 degrees right while hes at the exit of the corner.

Maybe not 90 but its not straight by any means.

That image seems odd, the steering wheel is turned but the wheels on the car seem to be straight ahead. I know perceptive can play tricks but even so it does look odd.

[AnthonyG]

Could Alonso have had an epileptic seizure in the car?

[Richard]

Could Alonso have had an epileptic seizure in the car?

The only evidence for that is opening a medical book and randomly picking medical conditions with your eyes closed.

Edit to add: Boullier responded to a question about Alonso's crash being triggered by his health/fainting etc - "Nothing you can listen, read or heard is true. Nothing other than what I told you is true". That's unequivocal.

http://www1.skysports.com/watch/video/s ... -all-clear