Ralfs accident

[Monstrobolaxa]

So Ralf was attended by the medics......did they find the brain?

[Takunator]

I feel that your comments are in bad taste since we do not know the full extent of his injuries

[bernard]

We all know what's wrong with him. It's just too bad the doctors are examining his back when his problems are inside his head.

[Guest]

Ralf came to a stop about 50 ft. to the left of me today. He made the main impact with the rear of the car, which bent the gearbox by about 20 degrees. As the gearbox did not absorb much of the impact because of its rigidity, I think this was the main cause of his injuries.

He was knocked out for about 45 sec. before starting to come back. After about 1.5 min he started motioning to the safety workers to come out and attend to him, and he was in a great deal of pain. I don't understand why it takes so long to get a doctor to the scene of an accident like that. I can understand somewhat why they have to wait until the doctor is on the scene, but it shouldn't take that long for a doctor to arrive. Maybe they should look into positioning several medical cars at various points on the circuit. There were 3 cars on the scene before the medical car, and then it took another lap to get an ambulance out there.

I will say that the seat was an excelent tool for aiding the safety crew in extracting him from the car. Today proved that if you're going to participate in racing that the best safety team in the world is at Indianapolis.

[Monstrobolaxa]

Left rear tire puncture!!!....so that was the cause! My guess was that or a left rear pushrod breaking....but it seems that the puncture was the cause!

[-shr3d-]

hey all,
disappointing start to the post monstro but im sure you know that by now..
yes there was some odd situations happening after ralfs accident... the amount of time it took them to get to him, the fact that they decided to take the safety car and the rest of the field through the accident debris numerous times and the fact that michael managed to lead the field even though he made a pitstop and the BAR's didnt....
i think we can say that Ralf was very fortunate that they now have a crash structure built into the rear of the car now as a few years ago it could have been a lot worse....

[Reca]

According to Alex Zanardi that crash showed a big problem of F1 cars at Indy : they run in the opposite direction compared with the original design. In fact at the exit of corners the barrier is made with a “soft wall” able to absorb the energy of the cars, but since the exit of the F1 corner is actually the straight line there’s no soft wall there. That, coupled with the fact that the car apparently is almost intact (although there’s the crash structure on the rear), means that the driver’s body had to absorb probably an higher deceleration than, for example, in the typical crash of an IRL race.
OT Zanardi claimed a couple of times that the rupture of the front part of the chassis during his crash (that caused him to lose both legs) is probably what saved his life because that reduced the deceleration his body had to cope with.

Today proved that if you're going to participate in racing that the best safety team in the world is at Indianapolis.

To require 1 min and 45 seconds for the first marshal to reach a unconscious driver isn’t what I call the showcase of the best safety team in the world.
Looking at the race from tv I had in fact the opposite feeling compared with yours, it looked like the episode, just like the whole race, was managed in a quite inefficient way.

[Monstrobolaxa]

Well I'd have to agree with Reca...the marshals took a lot of time to reach Ralf! In one reply Ralf tried to climb out of the car...with a marshal beside him...and the marshal just kept on talking to him instead of making him stay put in the car!

About the Zanardi accident...it's true the rupture of the monocoque might have saved him! If not his life...probably it might have saved him from brain injuries and a few days/weeks in a coma. At the time I read a report of one of the doctors that attended Zanardi...and he said they had to cut his seat belt off and use it as a torniket (don't know if it is correctly written)...around the leg...he was loosing a whole lot of blood! One of his legs just had a little piece of skin holding the bottom and the top!

[Spencifer_Murphy]

I appologise if you genuinly thought that Ralf suffered these injuries but in future please check your facts. Ralf has a bruised stomach and that is more or less it, although there is a good chance he will have to sit out the French GP. If you would like to read a full article on the subject you can read on here:

http://f1.racing-live.com/en/index.html

If that link brings up the home page click on the link to the article "Ralf might miss french grand prix". It states:

New reports suggest the German has a 'bruised stomach' after his huge shunt at Indianapolis and is likely to stay in a downtown hospital 'for several days.'

Sir Frank Williams said the 28-year-old is 'otherwise pretty ok.'

The article also states that he has back pain.

Once again please accept my deepest apologies if you really did think that Ralf was seriously injured, but if your where lying then you deserve it all and you should be ashamed for saying things like that just to prove a piont.

[Guest]

Well the problem in my opinion was the dispatching which is handled by the FIA and not the track for the F1 race. I know there is a rule that says that a marshal is not to aid a driver until a doctor is on the scene (look at Schumi's Silverstone accident. No one touched him until a doctor arrived). There was at least one vehicle on the scene (and I believe 2) before the medical car, but no one touched the driver. They asked if he was OK and assesed the safety of the scene, but Dr. Sid was the first to touch Ralf.

If you watch the Indy 500, you will notice that the Safety Trucks are moving as soon as a car impacts the wall and jump on the car immediately to check on the driver.

As far as the SAFER barrier, it was reconfigured to the direction of the F1 cars. As an Indy veteran, Ralf spun at a weird spot on the corner. Most cars lose it on entry or in the middle, but few spin like that on the exit without a mechanical failure. 99% of impacts with the wall there are because a driver pushed wide and are side impacts. I do agree that the barrier should be extended past where Ralf hit however (he only missed it by 20 or so feet). I saw the benefits of it during Pole Day at Indy this year where one driver was spared nearly 50 G's on impact because of it.

[Spencifer_Murphy]

I didnt realise that Indy used the SAFER barrier system. Or is it only in certain parts on therace track?

[-shr3d-]

it did seem a long time for someone to reach ralf and i can understand given his position on the race track that no marshall was going to run over there without the field being controlled by the safety car but they usually have doctors positioned around the course with access to course cars in melb i think... and maybe given the layout of the track they should try and have the main medical car somewhere before the last turn because most big accidents will happen on the main straight somewhere

[Mclaren11]

I went to the ticket renewal drivearound this evening and i tried follow ralphs tire marks back to the Oval turn one. it looks like he put his wheels over the edge of the rumble strips on the bottom of the corner. when they came back over the curb it could have poped the tyre.

[-shr3d-]

hey mclaren, michelin have reported that both Ralf and Fernando's accidents were from punctures caused by debris on the track.. although tires have been damaged by curbs before.....
what is the drivearound you mentioned??? sounds like a good idea

[Mclaren11]

If you had tickets to the race and renewed them within a day after the race you can drive aroung the grand prix course.

Unless there was debris just off of the track i think michelin was wrong, because the skid marks began right at the edge of the pavement where the wheels came back onto the track.