F4 crash Billy Monger

[Tim.Wright]

I think it's pretty clear the monocoque failed. They aren't designed for impacts into rigid objects at that speed though.

[Jolle]

High speed accidents are alway freakish and don't always make sense.

For instance, At Zanardi's crash where he lost his legs, the way his car was cut in half probably saved his life. If the car wouldn't have "passed trough" his monocoque, the forces would have been so great that he would have broke his neck/turned his brain into mush....

I don't know how the data logging in F4 is, but I can imagine that the longer deformation of the front end might have been life saving....

[Facts Only]

So watching the video, the car did not smash head first with its front crash structure into the rear crash structure of the car in front,

I have just watched the crash and have to disagree, to me it looks like the nose of Billys car impacts directly onto the rear crash structure of the car in front. At those speeds the crash structures will have little chance as all of the energy from the crash will be transferred directly from the nose of the gearbox into the front of Billys car.

If Billy had hit to one side on the wheel he would have speared through/under/off to the side and not ended up with the other car pretty much on the nose of his.

Actually I think whats happened is that the rear tail of the gearbox has speared through the front bulkhead of the car and gone into the footwell, that could explain why the cars are stuck together and also the horrific injuries that Billy sustained as if the tail of the gearbox did punch through the front bulkhead it would have taked the steering rack, brake MC's, dampers and all sorts of broken metal in there with it.

Its just a horrible freak accident, that you cant really predict and you cant build a car for every single eventuality. Sad times.

[void]

So watching the video, the car did not smash head first with its front crash structure into the rear crash structure of the car in front,

I have just watched the crash and have to disagree, to me it looks like the nose of Billys car impacts directly onto the rear crash structure of the car in front. At those speeds the crash structures will have little chance as all of the energy from the crash will be transferred directly from the nose of the gearbox into the front of Billys car.

If Billy had hit to one side on the wheel he would have speared through/under/off to the side and not ended up with the other car pretty much on the nose of his.

Actually I think whats happened is that the rear tail of the gearbox has speared through the front bulkhead of the car and gone into the footwell, that could explain why the cars are stuck together and also the horrific injuries that Billy sustained as if the tail of the gearbox did punch through the front bulkhead it would have taked the steering rack, brake MC's, dampers and all sorts of broken metal in there with it.

Its just a horrible freak accident, that you cant really predict and you cant build a car for every single eventuality. Sad times.

I agree, rear crash strutucre has a much smaller area than nose cone. Test nose cones, front/rear crash structures against a kind of wall or with a whatever bigger area, is not the same as test a nose cone against a rear crash structure, maybe FIA has to change his chassis homologation.

[Andres125sx]

So watching the video, the car did not smash head first with its front crash structure into the rear crash structure of the car in front, but into the tyre (I believe). If it was a case of head on front to rear crash structure, the consequences might have panned out differently as there was effectively more structure to absorb the forces.

In that case probably consecuences would have been more dramatic I think, as a direct impact onto the survival cell would have increased cockpit and driver deceleration.

And that´s supposing the survival cell surviving, as they´re not designed to cope with that sort of impact. Too much energy to disipate

[tristancliffe]

If you have not seen the recent F4 crash, here it is. It is terrible. Driver lost both legs.

Why were there no yellow flags, or had the other driver just stopped in track mere seconds beforehand? I cannot find an overhead shot to see if there were any warnings. Anyone have any information about this accident?

http://youtu.be/Eb1k2wNfTUc

I believe the other driver had spun, stalled and stopped only one or two seconds before Billy arrived at the scene. Too soon for marshals to have reacted with flags, and because he'd stalled he was unable to get out of the way under power, and because he'd already come to a stop (on an uphill section) he wasn't able to roll it off the circuit other than by perhaps waiting and rolling backwards, which would have made the accident slightly worse.

[turbof1]

So watching the video, the car did not smash head first with its front crash structure into the rear crash structure of the car in front, but into the tyre (I believe). If it was a case of head on front to rear crash structure, the consequences might have panned out differently as there was effectively more structure to absorb the forces.

In that case probably consecuences would have been more dramatic I think, as a direct impact onto the survival cell would have increased cockpit and driver deceleration.

And that´s supposing the survival cell surviving, as they´re not designed to cope with that sort of impact. Too much energy to disipate

No it would have decreased it. Remember, the crash structures are designed to crumble to slow down acceleration. A head on nose to the rear crash structure simply involves more crash structure.

That has not happened in a direct way. Facts only's opinion is that the rear crash structure was only hit in an indirect way, probably just knocking it of instead. The car then hit the solid gearbox.

I'm not saying it would by certainty have panned out differently, but a bigger, wider rear crash structure might have protected the survival cell of the trialling car better to penetration. As facts only said, the front crash structures are not designed for such an collision at that velocity, neither are rear crash structures, but perhaps these can be redesigned to do that.

Especially the rather small dimensions of the rear crash structure puzzles me. Crashes are rarely going to be head on as the driver's reflex is to take evasive action, avoiding intended (direct) collision with the only part at the rear designed for crashes.

[FrukostScones]

The rear crash structure of Formular cars must be completely re-evaluated. As defensive and also as "offensive" means asap by the FIA.

[scuderiafan]

The FiA is investigating the accident, but I'm not sure if a "re-evaluation" is in order. We'll see what the association says.

[JonoNic]

Nice gesture from McLaren