Official F1/Motorsport thread

[Alastair]

It's good to have some orange back in F1 also.

I've never really like MSC but damn do I want this

Was in a shop once in Monaco that was all original F1 memorabilia, tens of thousands of pounds for a Jordan steering wheel etc. They had helmets from all the greats as well. I wanted an Alesi one, always loved that lid.

[Paulos G]

I've never really like MSC but damn do I want this

Ooh. Nice. Wonder how much it'll go for?

[MonkeyWrench]

Bloody hell check this...180mph Champ Car crash by a British female driver:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_5370000/newsid_5379000/bb_wm_5379022.stm

Safely in motor racing has come a long way since the days of Senna's death.

[VR46]

I know, read that earlier, and she planned on going out to dinner that evening, top bird.

[Alastair]

Ooh. Nice. Wonder how much it'll go for?

?1560

And bloody hell to that crash! Wow, lucky lady.

[adam_the_browndog]

Should be easier to tell apart, at a glance, from the McLarens!!

That new Spyker looks very nice. Think Tiago and Albers are lined up again for next season, they have had abit of a rivalry this season from what ive seen.

I know albers will be annocing what he'll be doing for 2007, he will be driving but he will annoce it at suzuki.

As for hamilton, id like to see him in the McL for 2007.

think red bull could be better for 07 because of the newey car. For Torro rosso this is a good move, now speed n tonio can show that they can score points but i think the Torro isn't half bad for a back team .

Williams saying there car will be back to winning ways, i wouldn't really bank on anything on their situation. They could fade out like jordan. Sell up frank.

Super aguri, think in around 2 years they'll have to think of selling up. Sato might have to think of hanging his f1 boots up as i don't think he has that much interest behind him because of his repruatation of dangerous driving. As for seat two in aguri Davidson should get a shot.

[Richard.John]

On the question of safety, I think F1 has made progress as the last time that we saw a car disintergrate was Martin Donnelly's crash in 1990, but Champ/Indy cars seem to have a habit of breaking up upon impact.

[Alastair]

Dissipating energy like that isn't always a bad thing. The main thing was that her safety cell was 100% complete I suppose.

May have been different had bits/wheels/fairing ended up in a packed grandstand though!

[VR46]

I thought they might be made to come apart safely, but surely that's so dangerous for any following cars ?

[Alastair]

Yeah, very dangerous. There seems to be a world of difference between CART/CHAMP and F1 though. Good to see the catch fencing doing it's job, just high enough, imagine if she'd gone into the trees.

Any one of those bigger bits of carbon flying through the air straight into a visor at 100mph+ and a car at over 160mph would easily mean a fatality. In F1 though all smaller bits still fly everywhere, you can't make a totally solid car that wont break up at all.

[Alastair]

That Legge lady has had some biggies in her career already:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgx0PrnL34U

[Alastair]

I really feel like I'm spamming today!

Remember that F1 survey I linked to AGES ago? If you filled it in I thought you may want to see the results, it's like a giant PowerPoint slideshow but in flash and you can choose your resolution.

http://www.fia.com/mediacentre/Press_Releases/FIA_Sport/2006/September/260906-03.html

Bit boring but will pass half an hour!!!

[Richard.John]

Flying debris is dangerous of course. I have seen a vid from America of a crash where the engine detached from the monocoque and squashed some poor bugger in the infield. Death by V12! What a way to go.

[MonkeyWrench]

The worse one I've seen is old black and white footage of a crash at Le Mans where the engine and chasis of a Merc (I think) flew into the grand stand and gathered people up like a big human Katamari ball. Bear in mind the engines in those things were probably 3-4 times the size of a Formula 1 engine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Mans_1955_disaster

[Alastair]

That's nasty, had never heard of that one before.

Just looked for a video of it and the Mercedes there had massive air brakes behind their heads, there was me thinking that was a pretty new thing!