Drivers using their car as a weapon

Post here all non technical related topics about Formula One. This includes race results, discussions, testing analysis etc. TV coverage and other personal questions should be in Off topic chat.
mnmracer
mnmracer
-26
Joined: 17 Sep 2011, 23:41

Re: Drivers using their car as a weapon

Post

FoxHound wrote:Did Webber "Run over" Vettel?
Did I say he did?

User avatar
FoxHound
55
Joined: 23 Aug 2012, 16:50

Re: Drivers using their car as a weapon

Post

Ahh your post was directly after the Vettel/webber video.
And yea I agree the manoeuvre in the video stefan posted was bang out of order.
JET set

Richard
Richard
Moderator
Joined: 15 Apr 2009, 14:41
Location: UK

Re: Drivers using their car as a weapon

Post

The Maldonado incident is rather underwhelming compared to Prost in 89, Senna in 90 and Schumacher in 94 & 97. That doesn't excuse Maldonardo, just gives it some context.

The OP seems more dramatic, the offending car went off track to get to the victim. That make it appears much more deliberate and outrageous but in terms of danger it's of a lower order compared to the Schumacher, Prost and Senna collisions at racing speed. The irony of the racing speed bit is that it also provides the driver with the excuse of being a racing incident.

So yes we have all seen examples that were much more dangerous, only one of them penalised (Schumacher 97).

User avatar
turbof1
Moderator
Joined: 19 Jul 2012, 21:36
Location: MountDoom CFD Matrix

Re: Drivers using their car as a weapon

Post

mnmracer wrote: I do, that's why I added "sweeping move towards another driver". But he did not run over Hamilton.
He did the exact same thing as Félix Serrallés: used his car deliberately to hit his opponent. Purely an act of agression which has nothing, but really absolutely nothing to do with circuit racing.

The big difference between Webber and these 2: Webber didn't have the intention to actually hit Vettel, just to scare him off to make a point. Of course, the risk was there he miscalculated and hit Vettel after all, but he didn't.

Past similar looking issues are in reality not completely similar. Senna hit Prost quite often, I believe 2 times at Suzuka and once in Monza. The truth is, he didn't really had the intention to hit Prost either. He knew it would come to a collision if Prost didn't backed off, and so it did, but the intention was there to make a stand, not to deliberately hit Prost.

Schumacher might come closest it. Until this day I never really knew if his bumps with Hill and Villeneuve were an act of desperation to close the door, or a deliberate shot to take them out.
#AeroFrodo

User avatar
GitanesBlondes
26
Joined: 30 Jul 2013, 20:16

Re: Drivers using their car as a weapon

Post

turbof1-

Jerez '97 was a blatant effort to try and ram Villeneuve off the circuit.

This is when Villeneuve was already up past him going into the corner and Schumacher decides to ram him in a last ditch effort to save the championship. It was a combination of desperation and a deliberate shot to take him out.

Image
"I don't want to make friends with anybody. I don't give a sh*t for fame. I just want to win." -Nelson Piquet

User avatar
turbof1
Moderator
Joined: 19 Jul 2012, 21:36
Location: MountDoom CFD Matrix

Re: Drivers using their car as a weapon

Post

Yes I know. The question is what drove him most: a cold, hard calculated move or a reflex out of desperation. Clearly in the cases of maldonado and Serallés it was obvious a calculated act of agression, given the amount of time they had between the trigger and the deed, but Schumacher didn't have that. Obviously the end result was always the same, but I still don't know if it was schumacher just loosing it or him thinking "if I ram this person off...".

Or let me rephrase it all: say schumacher didn't ran villeneuve off, but murdered him. Is he a psychopat or just did something desperate under pressure?
#AeroFrodo

User avatar
flynfrog
Moderator
Joined: 23 Mar 2006, 22:31

Re: Drivers using their car as a weapon

Post

There should be some Goodwin law for this sight involving Shu Prost Senna and Ham. Pretty much any driver discussion boils down to that.

User avatar
GitanesBlondes
26
Joined: 30 Jul 2013, 20:16

Re: Drivers using their car as a weapon

Post

henra wrote:
GitanesBlondes wrote: I'd add as an addendum to what he speaks of regarding circuit safety, being applicable to car safety as well. The trade off for much safer cars is that drivers have little regard for making contact with one another on the circuit.
That may well be the case.
Still, the fix should not be to make F1 or any other racing series effectively more dangerous again. Allan Simonsen is certainly enough for all the High Profile Racing Series for this year (and next year for that matter).

The fix to such behaviour needs to be simply a clear enforcement of the rules by handing out unmistakable and noticeable penalties. In this case for instance an immediate suspension from the racing series and revocation of the licence for one year or something of similarly noticeable severity.
We've already seen how inconsistently penalties are applied. There's no base standards among FIA Stewardship since the same move by two different drivers can have wildly different penalties associated with it...or even a lack of penalties.

You'll never have a clear enforcement of the rules in motor sports as many times it is simply political.

Danger being brought back has a two-fold approach in that, 1) it teaches drivers the value of human life in motor sport competition and 2) it would prevent things as seen in the video where a driver goes off circuit to drive into someone due to the massive runoff area. At least on point 2, if there were ever a reason for why the tarmac runoff areas need to go, that is it. If that is a gravel trap, do you think he bothers driving off to ram the car?
"I don't want to make friends with anybody. I don't give a sh*t for fame. I just want to win." -Nelson Piquet

stefan_
stefan_
696
Joined: 04 Feb 2012, 12:43
Location: Bucharest, Romania

Re: Drivers using their car as a weapon

Post

Not defending anyone here, but in the Prost-Senna / Senna-Prost cases there is not an act of agression (as in "Yea, I'll crash this guy") from either of the two. Senna was putting himself in a position that was giving the other driver the option of colliding or not. Wether Prost took the corner and crashed, or he didn't, let Senna through and give him the championship. Neither of them was chasing each other on the track to crash.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFuZ_DuQG9A[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvSgJDIsRnc[/youtube]

as opposed to

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=732IS44ZKso[/youtube]
"...and there, very much in flames, is Jacques Laffite's Ligier. That's obviously a turbo blaze, and of course, Laffite will be able to see that conflagration in his mirrors... he is coolly parking the car somewhere safe." Murray Walker, San Marino 1985

Richard
Richard
Moderator
Joined: 15 Apr 2009, 14:41
Location: UK

Re: Drivers using their car as a weapon

Post

stefan_ wrote:Not defending anyone here, but in the Prost-Senna / Senna-Prost cases there is not an act of agression (as in "Yea, I'll crash this guy") from either of the two.
Except the Senna was explicit that he'd take Prost out of the race if Senna wasn't in font.
Senna wrote:I said to myself 'OK, you try to work cleanly and do the job properly and then you get f**ked by stupid people. All right, if tomorrow Prost beats me off the line, at the first corner I will go for it, and he better not turn in because he is not going to make it'. And it just happened.
The difference is the cynical driver puts his car in a place that can't be avoided,the clumsy driver proactively changes line to hit the other car. Same motive, same end result, the only difference is the subtlety.

By the way I don't mean this to be a fanboy post for or against Senna, Prost or Schumacher. I'm trying to highlight how high speed collisions with subtlety compare to clumsy low speed collisions with equal intent.

User avatar
flynfrog
Moderator
Joined: 23 Mar 2006, 22:31

Re: Drivers using their car as a weapon

Post

The change happened about the time the carbon tub came into play. Cars went from fragile rolling bombs to almost unbreakable weapons in quick time. Senna being famous for putting his car in places to make the other driver choose between a crash or letting him by. Not saying he is in more guilty or innocent than the other parties but it was this change that brought about the different attitudes between drivers.

User avatar
Powershift
-2
Joined: 16 Mar 2012, 04:32

Re: Drivers using their car as a weapon

Post

richard_leeds wrote:The Maldonado incident is rather underwhelming compared to Prost in 89, Senna in 90 and Schumacher in 94 & 97. That doesn't excuse Maldonardo, just gives it some context.

The OP seems more dramatic, the offending car went off track to get to the victim. That make it appears much more deliberate and outrageous but in terms of danger it's of a lower order compared to the Schumacher, Prost and Senna collisions at racing speed. The irony of the racing speed bit is that it also provides the driver with the excuse of being a racing incident.

So yes we have all seen examples that were much more dangerous, only one of them penalised (Schumacher 97).
Senna did not intentionally hit Prost, please stop making this false claim. Senna was on the extreme far right of the circuit and had no space to go to the right further.
Winning is the most important. Everything is consequence of that. Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose.-Ayrton Senna

User avatar
Powershift
-2
Joined: 16 Mar 2012, 04:32

Re: Drivers using their car as a weapon

Post

richard_leeds wrote:
stefan_ wrote:Not defending anyone here, but in the Prost-Senna / Senna-Prost cases there is not an act of agression (as in "Yea, I'll crash this guy") from either of the two.
Except the Senna was explicit that he'd take Prost out of the race if Senna wasn't in font.
Senna wrote:I said to myself 'OK, you try to work cleanly and do the job properly and then you get f**ked by stupid people. All right, if tomorrow Prost beats me off the line, at the first corner I will go for it, and he better not turn in because he is not going to make it'. And it just happened.
The difference is the cynical driver puts his car in a place that can't be avoided,the clumsy driver proactively changes line to hit the other car. Same motive, same end result, the only difference is the subtlety.

By the way I don't mean this to be a fanboy post for or against Senna, Prost or Schumacher. I'm trying to highlight how high speed collisions with subtlety compare to clumsy low speed collisions with equal intent.

Where in this...
Senna wrote:I said to myself 'OK, you try to work cleanly and do the job properly and then you get f**ked by stupid people. All right, if tomorrow Prost beats me off the line, at the first corner I will go for it, and he better not turn in because he is not going to make it'. And it just happened.
Does he say "I will take him out"?, What do you gain by putting words in the man's mouth? He said "I will go for it", not " I will take him out" Senna had every right to race into turn one, it was Prost in 1990 that turned into Senna, had Prost gave proper racing room they would not have collided, we have seen many drivers enter turn 1 Suzuka side by side without contact.
Winning is the most important. Everything is consequence of that. Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose.-Ayrton Senna

User avatar
turbof1
Moderator
Joined: 19 Jul 2012, 21:36
Location: MountDoom CFD Matrix

Re: Drivers using their car as a weapon

Post

Like I said earlier, the senna event was about making a stand. He simply hold his position on track and made it very clear he would not give up and that the only 2 options for Prost were either to move out of the way or crash. This is nothing about intentionally crashing. This is about holding on to a certain trajectory no matter what. He even warned Prost for that before the day before the race.

This is nothing like going intentionally off-line/track to bump into the opponent.
#AeroFrodo

Mandrake
Mandrake
14
Joined: 31 May 2010, 01:31

Re: Drivers using their car as a weapon

Post

By today's standards, Senna would have been penalised by the stewards in both cases. 89 was a massive divebomb from far too far back and 90, well, he stuck his nose into a place it didn't belong. Bearing in mind it was the championship deciding move for him and he had nothing to lose, it was fairly obvious a maneuver on purpose.

Rage or overagression does not have a place in motorsports. Drivers that cannot control themselves and drive on purpose into other cars should face serious penalties. I was once hit from behind while karting after I've lapped someone. He got mad and never braked while ramming my back. That was both unexpected and very painful...

@ those defending Senna: He was wrong there. Making a stand and sticking to it is even worse as it was a planned action, not a spontaneous one. As fast a driver he was, he was as dirty as every other champion out there!