First injury at Indy

[angst]

Well, a Porsche driver has been badly injured at Indianapolis raceway after crashing into one of the walls there. How is it that F1 emasculates all the best circuits - ie Oestereichring, Imola etc. because of run-off areas and then puts on a race with concrete walls surrounding the circuit? Just to get a race in the U.S? Why not use one of the better circuits (Elkhart Lake, Road Atlanta, Watkins Glen) which are superior circuits and can't be any more dangerous than Indy.....

[f1ciamp]

.........indianapolis motor speedway...............capitol of american motorsports..........-400.000- spectators...........,no coment

[Jim Clark]

ANGST...what's your source? I've heard (nor seen) anything about the crash. please post or e-mail me. I agree Indy is not the greatest in regard to circuit but the exposure of the name.....oh well. Thanks in advance.

[Jay]

I posted an interview with jacques Villeneuve where he describes what going back to Indy will be like.

He didn't have any complimentary comments for the new track, the city of Indianapolis, or Americans. However he did address the safety issue saying that the cars will never be going fast enough around the oval turn for it to be a major risk.

Driving the circuit in various computer games, he is right. The cars will be travelling a good 50 mph slower than the Indy cars do through that turn, and for there to be a crash a car would have to have a very serious mechanical failure.

however, if there was a crash there it would still be very ugly.

[Liz]

God forbid there should be a major crash with injuries at any F1 race.

But if that were to happen because of a slighting of safety concerns at IMS, do you think they'd take the race away?

P.S. A woman club racer was burned to death last week at the Nurimbergring. I notice that is still in operation.

[Crash Test]

"(Elkhart Lake, Road Atlanta, Watkins Glen) which are superior
circuits and can't be any more dangerous than Indy"

With respect to Indy...

Road America? I would(n't) like to see one go off at the Kink....

Watkins Glen? Ah, you've got to be joking...the money they would have to be spent on that place to bring it up to scratch would be better spend on building a road bridge to the moon...

Indianapolis Raceway -ah are you sure it was at the IMS, because there is a small track down the road called Indianapolis Raceway Park (or something along those lines).

What about Monaco? I think there would be more walls and things to hit there than any other track in the universe, come on people, lets ban Monaco!!

Why don't we reserve judgement on the track until after hte race...

Although an F1 stacking it on the last turn would be very very ugly....remember Diniz last year? Maybe F1 is the problem. IRL cars, although people love to knock them, they can handle hits with the walls at Indy....mayeb they should make F1 cars stronger, increase the minimum weight etc etc...

[Sharky]

I haven't heard anything about any accident or anything of the sort.

Anyway....I also think that maybe it would have been better if the race was held at Elkhart lake or something like that but what f1ciamp says is true. Indy=400000 spectators. But I'm really nbot that worried about the safety of the track. In the inner part of the track there are plenty of run off areas and when the cars cross the last corner (which is the only one surounded by a concrete wall) they won't be going at full speed.....and in the straight....unless someone slams someone else into the wall (very unlikely taking into account the width of the track) they should be OK.

[EERO]

The following is a quote from the Daily F1 Web Page.
I think that if a driver has aserious accident in an enclosed car into the concrete walls, we can only fear a much worse situation in an F1 car. It is my understanding that Champcars and IRL Chassis are much stronger than the typical F1-let us hope that this isn't true.
My thoughts are with Timo Bernard and I wish him a speddy recovery.


Driver injured in USGP tests

Testing for the forthcoming United States Grand Prix was marred on Monday with a young German driver badly injured in an accident.

Timo Bernhard, who was driving a Porsche 911, clouted the concrete barrier at turn 13 of the new Grand Prix track at 260 km/h. The 19-year-old was rushed to Indianapolis’s Methodist Hospital, where he is currently in a stable condition.

Bernhard was finishing off a three-day test, involving the 911s to be used in the Pirelli Supercup event held as part of the support programme to the Grand Prix.

[fastracer]

I hope that Bernhard will have a quick recovery and that no one else will have a dangerous crash at IMS.
As for running at Elkhart Lake, it will never happen because it is in the middle of nowhere and there are fewer spectators, so that means that Bernie won't be able to make any money (sad isn't it?)
But if Bernie wants to go to a place where he will make money, why not go to Long Beach? The track is better than IMS' track, they have experience of holding F1 events, and there are pleanty of spectators that would go to see the race.

[Crash Test]

Why did they lose the F1 race in the first place??

[Mr.S]

The organizers found out that though CART brings in less money then F1, they would make more, key word... MONEY, if they held a champ car event because of less expense.