Antoine Hubert's crash. R.I.P.

[RZS10]

Probably the car that went sideways up raidillon?

Was two cars in front of Hubert at that point, so it was one of the Trident cars, so Alesi or Boschung, Alesi was in front in Q

[maverick02490]

Who was the driver without a rear wing going slowly on the racing line before they crashed into the barriers and into each other, both outside the track limits?

That would be Alesi. He had snap oversteer in the middle part of raidillon. he veered in to the left side barrier and when his car returned on track, Hubert hit him in the right rear, thus sending Hubert to the tyre barrier. and the rest well all know...

Alesi's small mistake is what started the whole chain of events.
I don't put any blame on Alesi however.
I blame Spa track owners, organizers and above all FIA for not doing anything about the run off areas around raidillon.

Why blame the FIA? because they seem to think that part is safe enough for racing with the fastest cars on the planet. for else they wouldn't have any FIA sanctioned racing there, right?
Is FIA assuming the cars are enough safe, if the track isn't? who knows.

Complacency kills...

Modern top level racing cars can take on eau rogue and raidillon flat out. the speeds are too high for that chicane for it to not have run off areas on both sides. when you've cleared eau rogue (first turn at the bottom of the hill) your nose is pointing straight at a wall!
like i said earlier, there have been many extremely dangerous accidents on that part of the track in recent years, yet nothing has been done about improving safety. I doubt they'll do anything about it because "it's spa. it's supposed to be like that" or whatever.

shame. spa has an awesome layout, one of the best. but also piss poor safety.

[Shrieker]

Very sad Rest in peace.

[coaster]

Similar to Alex Zanardi monocoque damage, at those speeds no safety structure can withstand such sudden halt, maybe a chicane will added as result of this?
Untimely loss of a decent young man, rest in peace.

[sn809]

Sad for him and significant loss for family and friends

[Fulcrum]

From the moment I saw the accident, I was afraid this might be the outcome.

Its a tragic loss for everyone. My condolences to his family and all who knew him.

The cars would have to change significantly to improve survivability from accidents like this but, measured against the very public loss of life, all options should be considered. Alterations to the track, as have already been suggested, will almost certainly be mandated though (imo).

[Sevach]

Not really relevant, but he seemed like one of the most promising names of the rookies this season, if not the outright best.

Awful just awful.

[MtthsMlw]

May he rest in peace.
I was just in the car to head back home from the track when I heard the news. It felt like a punch to the gut when thinking about that I just saw him racing on friday or standing on the truck at the drivers parade yesterday.
I hope Correa has a speedy recovery and I wish all the best to everyone else that was involved.

[Jolle]

Who was the driver without a rear wing going slowly on the racing line before they crashed into the barriers and into each other, both outside the track limits?

That would be Alesi. He had snap oversteer in the middle part of raidillon. he veered in to the left side barrier and when his car returned on track, Hubert hit him in the right rear, thus sending Hubert to the tyre barrier. and the rest well all know...

Alesi's small mistake is what started the whole chain of events.
I don't put any blame on Alesi however.
I blame Spa track owners, organizers and above all FIA for not doing anything about the run off areas around raidillon.

Why blame the FIA? because they seem to think that part is safe enough for racing with the fastest cars on the planet. for else they wouldn't have any FIA sanctioned racing there, right?
Is FIA assuming the cars are enough safe, if the track isn't? who knows.

Complacency kills...

Modern top level racing cars can take on eau rogue and raidillon flat out. the speeds are too high for that chicane for it to not have run off areas on both sides. when you've cleared eau rogue (first turn at the bottom of the hill) your nose is pointing straight at a wall!
like i said earlier, there have been many extremely dangerous accidents on that part of the track in recent years, yet nothing has been done about improving safety. I doubt they'll do anything about it because "it's spa. it's supposed to be like that" or whatever.

shame. spa has an awesome layout, one of the best. but also piss poor safety.

Oh that must feel terrible for Alesi.

Enough runoff is always difficult with these speeds... this section of Spa is of course very old style, there have been many crashes like this before, just not that second impact by another car.

I hope they investigate this crash and take proper steps to limit the danger. We have many high speed corners fairly close to tire barriers on the calendar. Suzuka has a few, Brazil I think and Zandvoort certainly has one.

[Fnatic1]

It is a very sad happening but I am baffled why Spa / FIA changed the run-off area from gravel to asphalt on top of Radillion. Hubert got hit by Correa completely outside the race track. If gravel was still used, drivers wouldn’t abuse the run-off like the way of this tragic incident in my view. There should be more awareness of track safety, because the effects of incidents like this could then be minimized.

[FittingMechanics]

Runoff being gravel brings other set of problems, namely cars digging in and tumbling which is probably more dangerous in a general sense.

In this situation I feel major issue is that the tires slowed down Hubert very quickly, and turned his glancing blow into a standing car close to the racing line (which then got hit to the side). I feel that they need to redesign barrier in this area, either the runoff needs to be wider and longer so the cars can bounce from the tires safely, or they need to put in something like SAFER barrier which would keep cars sliding away in glancing blows.

Tire wall slows you down, but it grips and spins you in a glancing blow. Cars shouldn't return toward the track, it opens us to these kind of accidents.

[Manoah2u]

while on that topic, one might wonder wether extending the run-off area to be longer and wider would be a wiser decision. indeed, there have been some close calls there, wasn't magnussen or was it palmer in a renault involved in a hefty shunt there too?

thing is, i do wonder whether anything would have made difference. the thing is, correa needed to avoid running into other cars/debris, and had only one way to go, which was to the right. perhaps gravel would have slowed hubert down more, then again, you can't brake in gravel, and have no grip. at the best, you get dug in a bit.
if there would have been gravel/grass, then when correa steered to the right to avoid collision on-track, then he would have had no grip at all, and thus couldn't brake and in the end would have ended up exactly the same in the side of hubert's car. perhaps with even more speed, and would have made it even worse, perhaps correa even sustaining bigger injury.

the biggest problem here was he hit hubert in the side. if it were head on or to the back, hubert might have survived. but, that just did not happen.

[ubuysa]

Tire wall slows you down, but it grips and spins you in a glancing blow. Cars shouldn't return toward the track, it opens us to these kind of accidents.

This is the key for me. Track design should ensure that a car hitting the barriers cannot bounce back onto (or in the direction of) the track. The tyre barrier they have there is angled such that any car hitting it at a shallow angle will be directed back towards the track.

If Spa want to keep the Radillion part of the older circuit (and I think they should) then they need to spend the money to excavate a proper run-off area out of that bank.

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[FittingMechanics]

while on that topic, one might wonder wether extending the run-off area to be longer and wider would be a wiser decision. indeed, there have been some close calls there, wasn't magnussen or was it palmer in a renault involved in a hefty shunt there too?

thing is, i do wonder whether anything would have made difference. the thing is, correa needed to avoid running into other cars/debris, and had only one way to go, which was to the right. perhaps gravel would have slowed hubert down more, then again, you can't brake in gravel, and have no grip. at the best, you get dug in a bit.
if there would have been gravel/grass, then when correa steered to the right to avoid collision on-track, then he would have had no grip at all, and thus couldn't brake and in the end would have ended up exactly the same in the side of hubert's car. perhaps with even more speed, and would have made it even worse, perhaps correa even sustaining bigger injury.

the biggest problem here was he hit hubert in the side. if it were head on or to the back, hubert might have survived. but, that just did not happen.

Problem was that Hubert hit the tires, lost the speed and was spun around toward the track. He wasn't very far from the track either, so him being hit on someone using the runoff isn't that significant. In IndyCar they use SAFER barrier which has a flexible wall with springs, it does not "catch" the car but rather absorbs the initial hit and allows the car to slide away and lose energy gradually. It does not work if the crash is head on, but for any kind of glancing blows it is perfect. If right side of Eau Rouge used SAFER barrier, Hubert would probably continue sliding toward the straight and would have a lot of speed remaining which makes it easier to avoid him and less speed differential.

Gravel runoff in that area would be very dangerous, cars would dig in and tumble like before.

[maverick02490]

Also, if there was some actual run off area on the left side, at the top of the hill, at the end of raidillon, Alesi would've just spun and re-joined the race. instead, he bounced off the armco barrier and straight back on track, which in itself is very dangerous.

it's weird how there's tons of run off area at the bottom of the hill, but none if it where it actually matters.