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

[FittingMechanics]

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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Look at Raidillon. I couldn't find a good picture, but this will work.

Two major issue, if you run off to the left side, you are probably hitting a tire wall head on with tire wall being slightly angled, and as a result you will be thrown onto the track. This is what happened to Alesi yesterday, he oversteered into the wall on the left, got spun around and ended up driving away damaged on the track.



Here you can see how the left side looks very likely for these kind of crashes, you run wide, hit it and then the tires throw you on the track into traffic. Right side doesn't look nearly as dangerous, but obviously it can happen as well.

I feel that if they extended the runoff on the left (and potentially on the right as well), and then add SAFER barrier onto the parts where the cars would do glancing blows, the track would be much safer.

[Andres125sx]

Rest in peace Antoine

I don´t think this can be prevented tough, the only way would be definitely close Spa, Suzuka, and any oval track btw. This accident is exactly the same Zanardi suffered, only that Zanardi was lucky enough to be hit more in the nose of his car, so he only lost his legs instead of his life

There´s no way to protect drivers from a 200kmh+ direct impact from other car. FIA has done an awesome job in last decades to improve safety. Survival cell, hans, hallo, pro-tec barriers... all this has saved dozend of lifes, but when there´re humans into a car moving at 300kmh+ and cornering at 5Gs, sh*t can happen quite easily. I think F1 and obviously F2 are safe enough, the speeds are dramatic, and accidents usually end with drivers returning to pits by their own and asking their mechanics if they will be able to repair the car in time for next season, and to me that is awesome

Alonso, Verstappen, Lecrerc, Kubica... all of them might be dead if racing 20-30 years ago, but they´re alive thanks to the awesome safety measures FIA introduced. But obviously not everything can be prevented while racing at those speeds, there will always be some inherent risk wich we can´t completely eliminate, and a direct impact at those speeds is one of them.

[FittingMechanics]

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.

Runoff is there because they added a chicane in the 90s, so the "runoff" is in fact old chicane. Look at this image https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dlrt8YsXoAA ... me=900x900

[RZS10]

Alesi's small mistake is what started the whole chain of events.
I don't put any blame on Alesi however.

Oh that must feel terrible for Alesi.

Alesi had a puncture / tyre failure, probably from debris from the Schumacher/Latifi contact in La Source, so the chain of events started even earlier.

AMuS says they were allowed to watch the footage that wasn't shown in the world feed:
Alesi has a tyre failure, crashes into the barrier on the left spinning twice, debris gets shot across the track, Boschung avoids the rear wing of Alesi and slows down, Hubert has to go even further to the right but (supposedly) stays on throttle and hits Boschung and loses his front wing which causes him to hit the barrier without front DF and he ends up on the runoff, further from the track than from the barrier - Correa tries to go through all the chaos... over the run off area... supposedly at full throttle.........

[cooken]

I don´t think this can be prevented tough, the only way would be definitely close Spa, Suzuka, and any oval track btw.

Why not? What others mentioned with respect to runoff and barrier technology should be more than sufficient to mitigate this kind of incident. There is no reason for a car to be spat back onto the track after hitting barriers. The knowledge and technology are readily available.

[Morteza]

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[Fulcrum]

Alesi's small mistake is what started the whole chain of events.
I don't put any blame on Alesi however.

Oh that must feel terrible for Alesi.

Alesi had a puncture / tyre failure, probably from debris from the Schumacher/Latifi contact in La Source, so the chain of events started even earlier.

AMuS says they were allowed to watch the footage that wasn't shown in the world feed:
Alesi has a tyre failure, crashes into the barrier on the left spinning twice, debris gets shot across the track, Boschung avoids the rear wing of Alesi and slows down, Hubert has to go even further to the right but (supposedly) stays on throttle and hits Boschung and loses his front wing which causes him to hit the barrier without front DF and he ends up on the runoff, further from the track than from the barrier - Correa tries to go through all the chaos... over the run off area... supposedly at full throttle.........

Based on what I have seen, the accident occurred where the runoff area narrows as it merges with the circuit. At this point there are maybe 3-4 car's widths of runoff left, but narrowing quickly. Hubert was midway between the barrier and the right-hand margin of the track at the point of impact.

I don't know why Correa went so far to the right, as no other driver felt the need to take the line he chose. I guess he went that way early, and that was it, not much time to correct when you're going quick.

[ESPImperium]

Its heartbreaking what happened to Anthonie Hubert. May he rest in peace, with thought to his family and friends. And from what i can gleam from the reports, we have been lucky it wasn't a double tragedy with Juan Manuel Correa loosing his life as well, such is the luck of god in that situation.

However, i do think the push for more safety will continue. I think the case for Eau Rouge/Raidillon is out at the moment, i say there is a possibility where we may have to give corners like this up as they are not safe enough. Its the complex that Pietro Fittipaldi broke both his legs in WEC 6 hours of Spa last year.

The entry is worrying as the hill with the house needs to be removed, it would be expensive as the rock is hard ingenuous rock, and i think it may, just be okay as it is, however that exit of Raidillon needs to be changed, cars seem to bounce back into the track, i think the run off needs extended by 25m or so, and the tire wall needs to be at a angle that is angled away from the track, if there is a bounce, it makes the bounce a longer distance. And finally, that wall where the support pit exit is, needs to be changed, that hunk of trees need to be chopped down and the pit exit needs to be on the Kemmel, ideally id have it do a Abu Dhabi and go under the track and emerge on the outside of the track.

I can see this area of Spa being changed immensely in the coming years.

[nzjrs]

I can see this area of Spa being changed immensely in the coming years.

I can understandably foresee that changing the track layout will be controversial.

I have heard two interesting comments; 1) that the tire barriers may be reconsidered in light of their tendency to hook and rebound cars back onto track - I expect they might embark on a simulation or study of what can be improved here. 2) that the drivers are used to having huge runoff here, so practice in the simulators and 'learn' that they can keep their foot down despite the kind of errors that would not have been tolerated here a few years ago.

[Jolle]

I think this is one of the corners on the GP calendar where we've been lucky all these years. In any top ten crash compilation, this corner is featured multiple times. The change of direction at high speed with the barriers so close that you can't react makes this, in this case, fatal.

[maxxer]

Well the way the side impact works on a formula car just failed horribly , that doesnt have to do with the track at all.
the car came back onto the track and was hit under an angle ripping away so much and leaving the driver exposed.
it seems the side impact structures are only tested straight on and not under angles

[maxxer]

I don´t think this can be prevented tough, the only way would be definitely close Spa, Suzuka, and any oval track btw.

Why not? What others mentioned with respect to runoff and barrier technology should be more than sufficient to mitigate this kind of incident. There is no reason for a car to be spat back onto the track after hitting barriers. The knowledge and technology are readily available.

Well the spa barriers they could invest in a bit more modern stuff. But also would be nice if drivers who leave the track know how to brake in this case he left the track and kept full speed when he hit the other car.

[ESPImperium]

I can see this area of Spa being changed immensely in the coming years.

I can understandably foresee that changing the track layout will be controversial.

I have heard two interesting comments; 1) that the tire barriers may be reconsidered in light of their tendency to hook and rebound cars back onto track - I expect they might embark on a simulation or study of what can be improved here. 2) that the drivers are used to having huge runoff here, so practice in the simulators and 'learn' that they can keep their foot down despite the kind of errors that would not have been tolerated here a few years ago.

This won't be just one track, it will be others. There are other corners that need better safety, like more cranes and lifting equipment external to the track, like 130R/Dunlop where the run offs are short, but the recovery could be better, with cranes and not the present arrangement. Other corners that will be looked at are some of the most revered in F1 like Copse, Maggots/Becketts/Chappel. Its also the reason that we don't see the Signes corner at Paul Riccard without the chicane in the middle of the back straight that would lead this track to be more of a power track that would make the car setup interesting. I do think that like post Senna/Ratzenburger in 1994 at Imola, we will see a shift in track design in the coming years.

Well the way the side impact works on a formula car just failed horribly , that doesnt have to do with the track at all.
the car came back onto the track and was hit under an angle ripping away so much and leaving the driver exposed.
it seems the side impact structures are only tested straight on and not under angles

This will be a wakeup call on the chassis side of things, F1 does things side impact structure will change, this will only be a positive step, however when it comes to the F2 and F3 cars, where a monocoque is cost capped may be a bit more difficult, where the F2 and F3 teams already pay though the nose for parts. I think it will see a push in the side impact area, as its the one area of the chassis that needs more strength. However, i have in the past been critical on the front structure being too low, and we saw that today in the F3 race where the car went under the tire bundle. If for the safety of the halo, it may be way worse.

The chase towards even safer racing will continue, and i think it's going to go towards another chapter in the next two to 5 years. I am of a generation (I was 9 at the time) that had Imola 1994 etched in their retinas, the previous generation experienced much worse than what my generation did. The generation that has seen arguably the safest generation of racing ever, is now facing the same decisions, how do we make this safer. Things will be changed, however controversial decisions will have to be made.

[Singabule]

I found this on youtube, https://youtu.be/T4C9MCLHgwc
I wont show the pic and video but its very good evidence how brutal the impact is, on the chasis. Please dont bash me and dont take it personally, as we all aiming to safety improvement.

[ENGINE TUNER]

The side and front impact structures must be designed to work in harmony to mitigate these types of "T-bone" collisions. This should have been addressed more after the Zanardi crash. The fia has mandated stronger side "anti intrusion" panels on the F1 cars lately, but it seems that the side impact "crumple" energy absorbin structures are insufficient. The reason why F1 cars have increased in weight significantly the last several years are because of much stronger safety requirements and equipment. The F2 cars are probably faster than the all conquering MP4/4 or FW14, and they might need higher crash standards as well.

It seems to me that the front impact structure, would strike inbetween the 2 side impact structures on an F1 car, rendering them all much less effective in this type of crash. A common crash "height", probably the axle height, should be established, so that all the crash structures can work in unison.