Alonso's Crash

[Del]

One of the weirdest incidents in memory.

Something funny about his third night in hospital. That picture of him smiling on the bed, looked like a sick smile to me.

Your mind automatically goes to the worst with these things, I hope the big man is ok

well they probably gave him a lot of painkillers,or some other medicine... I think it's normal to look a bit druged lol

[Abarth]

[...]A car running at 90mph ground speed, with a 30mph tailwind has a 60mph airspeed, and because of that loses 56% of its downforce compared to a car running at 90mph in still air, or with wind from the side.

And how can we reconcile this with the statement of McLaren, that there was no drop of downforce?

[cherok1212]

"No recollection" of the accident conveniently takes away the only first hand witness to all the events. It gets stranger with each statement...

[FW17]

Something blew up

[noel]

http://www.grandprix247.com/wp-content/ ... cident.jpg

Something blew up

yeah, that's still the reflection of the camera pod.

[Abarth]

Look at all the pictures. The dark spot is not at the same place in the pictures. Must be a shadow.
http://www.marca.com/albumes/2015/02/22 ... dex_7.html

[Redragon]

http://www.grandprix247.com/wp-content/ ... cident.jpg

Something blew up

Look at all the pictures. The dark spot is not at the same place in the pictures. Must be a shadow.
http://www.marca.com/albumes/2015/02/22 ... dex_7.html

Look at the picture 10 and you will see clearly that it is the reflection of the camera pod.

[Mui]

A shadow will be on the same spot given the short time scale of the photos taken unless the object is moving.

A reflection though will look different at different angles/planes. Its likely it's the reflection of the camera pod.

[Abarth]

Yeah whatever, but nothing that blew.

[FW17]

Yeah whatever, but nothing that blew.

Agreed

[Tim.Wright]

Sorry for the pun but lets blow this "side gust" theory out the window with some numbers.

Assuming a side view Cd.A of 2 x 3 and a side wind gust of 50m/h that imparts a request of about 700N of lateral force on the tyres. Assuming a grip coefficient of 1.6 for the tyres and a mass of 700kg then the tyres are capable of producing about 11kN of force WITHOUT DOWNFORCE meaning the wind gust will soak up only a maximum of 6% of the capability of the tyres.

Like I said, this could be a problem if you were on the limit, i.e. already using 95% of the tyre's available grip but if you are under the limit its impossible that it can cause anything other than a slight change of trim.

This talk of an overdose of downforce is complete crap too. Again, if he wasn't on the limit then adding extra downforce will not cause the car to fall of the track regardless of the balance. It will only reduce the slip angle of the tyres due to the momentary increase of grip.

[Redragon]

Yeah whatever, but nothing that blew.

Agreed

Yeah what ever, but nothing like looking at the actual pictures, specially no 10

http://www.marca.com/albumes/2015/02/22 ... dex_7.html

[Tim.Wright]

Yeah whatever, but nothing that blew.

Agreed

Yeah what ever, but nothing like looking at the actual pictures, specially no 10

http://www.marca.com/albumes/2015/02/22 ... dex_7.html

What a coincidence that something also appears to have blown under the top camera mount too

[Richard]

What a coincidence that they have a transparent nose and you can see the front right tyre. Maybe that's why Vettel said the car looked strange????

Like I said, this could be a problem if you were on the limit, i.e. already using 95% of the tyre's available grip but if you are under the limit its impossible that it can cause anything other than a slight change of trim.

Indeed. The team say he'd run on the astro turf which in normal circumstances would require a correction to avoid a spin. So I guess it's reasonable to say the car was on the limit, plus windy conditions.

Also the car has very little mileage so it's handling will be a mixed bag until they get it tuned in and properly balanced. They go testing to discover these things.

The only unusual thing about the accident is the impact. Otherwise it'd be remembered as just another testing spin like all the others this week.

[WaikeCU]

What a coincidence that they have a transparent nose and you can see the front right tyre. Maybe that's why Vettel said the car looked strange????

Like I said, this could be a problem if you were on the limit, i.e. already using 95% of the tyre's available grip but if you are under the limit its impossible that it can cause anything other than a slight change of trim.

Indeed. The team say he'd run on the astro turf which in normal circumstances would require a correction to avoid a spin. So I guess it's reasonable to say the car was on the limit, plus windy conditions.

Also the car has very little mileage so it's handling will be a mixed bag until they get it tuned in and properly balanced. They go testing to discover these things.

The only unusual thing about the accident is the impact. Otherwise it'd be remembered as just another testing spin like all the others this week.

I don't really understand the meaning with on the limit when the car was at that moment going 150kph. Surely a F1 car can go harder through turn 3? So could you explain what you mean by being on the limit?