Renault not racing at the Europe GP at Valencia

[kilcoo316]

Did you watch the race? I'm sure you did, and watched as Alonso's wheel and frisbee slowly and predictably came off the car. It was obvious that the wheel could come off. And when it did, it became an uncontrolled, bouncing object. Renault and Alonso's decision to attempt to return to the pits resulted in a tire bouncing loose on the track. They made a decision that directly led to a very serious safety incident. They deserved some form of censure, and since this was safety related, it had to send a message. It's a very powerful message, but then the goal is to ensure we don't see this happen again. If any other team's car is in this kind of scenario again, they will think twice, and that's what they should do.

Away and grow a set ffs.


Wheels have been coming off since the year dot... and will continue to come off in the future.

A slow bouncing wheel does not have the unpredictability or KE of a wheel released in the middle of an accident.




Nothing like stupid knee jerk reactions to piss me off.

[kilcoo316]

The penalty is obsurd and does not fit the crime!!

No team willingly releases their car with a loose wheel as it is counter productive! They should have been fined at the very most and the same for Brawn!

I sincerely hope Ari takes over the FIA and fixes "the system" - currently it is arbitary and seemingly politically motivated when assessing penalties.

Exactly.


It seems too many in here are all caught up in the latest safety hype.


No doubt Mosley will try and introduce a quick fix to a problem that doesn't really exist, and will balls the whole thing up as usual.

[bjpower]

some kind of pickup and return system could have sorted Alonso - maybe.
or as this seems to happen a fair bit.

a team with wheel guns,some bolts drive over to the car and attach it properly.

[fer200979]

So some people say they deserve the penalty, others say that they don't deserve it....

Whatever it's clear to this point for me is that FIA actually does not have a clear criteria to make a consistent decision on what kind of thing should be penalized.

If FIA had a good and equally criteria for all teams, they could show black flags to the cars for preventing accidents to happen. The problem it’s that who is going to be the courageous guy that make that decision… no one. It’s better to do --- things like it’s under investigation; it will be investigated after the race…

[xpensive]

As so vey often before, I'm with kilcoo here, a wheel coming off is to my mind no more unsafe than a blown engine spewing oil over the whole track.

Safety-mania is getting out of hands here, it's racing, it's technical, ther's a human factor and yes, it will always be involved with a risk to run around in an open-wheller at 300 km/h.

[WhiteBlue]

A wheel coming off is to my mind no more unsafe than a blown engine spewing oil over the whole track.

If we go by the evidence of the past 20 years in open wheel single seat racing you have trouble to substantiate that opinion.

Cars going off on oil have seldomly caused injury to drivers. Drivers meeting a solid object and getting hurt or killed has happened more often. Just recently the Massa, da Matta and Surtees accidents make the point. Perhaps you give us oil incidents with fatalities or dangerous injuries.

[silverwood]

Reading this sure makes you think how big a grey area this really all is! that isn't good in any sport. A set of rules for sending out a potentially unsafe car will come out in the not to far distance is almost certain now.

Personally i think Brawn and Renault, possibly red bull not sure of the case, are all at fault for sending out a car that has the potential to cause a hazard. This kinds of rules have been in place at work for years HASAWA 1974 comes straight to mind. Not allowing Renault to race at all in Valencia is s real disappointment for the fans and sponsors, but i bet if Renault knew they would get banned for not telling Alonso to stop, which was never gonna happen, they would have stopped him. same goes for Brawn they knew they had a problem but still sent him out... hmmm interesting indeed...

[ISLAMATRON]

but i bet if Renault knew they would get banned for not telling Alonso to stop, which was never gonna happen, they would have stopped him. same goes for Brawn they knew they had a problem but still sent him out... hmmm interesting indeed...

That is not what they were banned for, they were banned for not telling him there was a problem at all, please read the stewards report. Even after Alonso radioed the pits thinking he had a puncture they still did not tell him there was a problem with the wheel nut.

[xpensive]

When you think about it WB, going off the track for one reason or another, often results in a meeting with a solid object of some sort. Anyway, oil on the track typically results in some kind of flag-warning, why stewards seems to take it seriously anyway.

Whatever the 20 years statistics.

[Ray]

Just recently the Massa, da Matta and Surtees accidents make the point.

And those of us who are not having a knee jerk reaction to this safety talk realize that Cristiano da Matta hit a goddamn deer. That has absolutely nothing to do with either Clarke or Massa incidents. He hit a deer. Let me repeat that. He hit a deer. You cannot stop wildlife from getting on a track so this is a very stupid example when talking about safety of the cars having parts fall off. But it seems that irrational thinking is running rampant around here and anyone that actually thinks something through is ridiculed for actually having a damn brain and using it.

[ISLAMATRON]

They did do something about it, they put an 8 foot high fence around the entire perimeter of road america.

[Ray]

They did do something about it, they put an 8 foot high fence around the entire perimeter of road america.

Not the point. It isn't related to either Henry Surtees or Felipe Massa being hit by an object that fell off another car. It's another example of all this safety stupidity going on around here using dumb examples and irrational thoughts about an accident that isn't related to the other two.

And just because they built a fence doesn't mean wildlife will get on the track. Davidson hitting a beaver? Remember that? Animals around a racecourse will always get on the track, no matter what you do. Just like ants, roaches and termites in a home.

[WhiteBlue]

We are talking of racing drivers being hit by an object. The injury doesn't care if you get hit by a deer, a dog, a wheel. The prevention of such objects being on track is certainly different but the damage mechanism is quite the same. So the da Matta incident has a relevance to the discussion of driver safety by active and passive measures.