Canadian GP - Massa Shunt

[TedN]

Have read conflicting reports as to whether one of his tires went into the stands. Anyone have info? Hope no one was hurt.

Ted

[Kicking-back]

It looked like all the wheels were still tethered to the car.

[Bononi]

I didn't see anything like that, could it be possible ?

[Gt_R]

One came off...but i don't think it went into the stands.

[BertMk2]

I think one of the rears had come off (I'm fairly sure there was a shot of the marshals loading a stray wheel onto a truck at the end of the race. I haven't heard anything about debris going into the crowd though (hope not).

[shiny side up!]

I saw a wheel come off (LR, I believe), but I don't think it made it into the stands.

The Saubers have had a lot of problems the past two weeks, with the high speed failures at Monza and now this suspension failure in Canada. I think Massa's incident in Monza was a tyre, but Fisi's was halfshaft / suspension, I wonder if that was the same thing that just happened to Massa...

[f1manoz]

Certainly was a big smash, but nothing went into the stands.

[Kicking-back]

So where did the story that a wheel did go into the stands come from?

Very irresponsible if it was a professional news organisation which made that claim.

[twig]

Well, it seems as though irresponsability is the case of this news organisation.

It was the left rear wheel, i saw a very quick glimpse of a car with smoking tyres on the high shot of the hairpin, so i think he slid sideways into the barrier, knocking off his rear left.
From the front on shot, you could see that wheel running alongside Massa as he went head on....and boy did he ever, that was a big one.
The wheel was at the height of the cameraman, around the same height as the car. I spose it could have hit the tyre barrier, and bounced up and over the fencing.....but i think that is unlikely - and as people have said, they saw the marshals rolling away a wheel.

Something else would have been said about a tyre going into the stands - not by just one media firm - someone got it wrong.

[TedN]

Originally posted by Kicking-back
So where did the story that a wheel did go into the stands come from?

Very irresponsible if it was a professional news organisation which made that claim.

It wasn't a news story but eye witness accounts by spectators at the hairpin ...

http://www.offcamber.net/forums/showthread.php?t=4742
http://forums.atlasf1.com/showthread...threadid=70198


Ted

[Kicking-back]

Well, whoever posted those "eye-witness" accounts is exaggerating or lying.

[DriverT]

Yes, I'd agree. One of the "witnesses" says that two tires went into a packed grandstand, yet there was no medical help. Sounds like a load of rubbish.

[TedN]

Just found this at F1-Live ...

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

[14/06/04 - 15:25]
Massa's Sauber front wheel into the crowd !
A moment that wasn't recorded by television...
by Hugo GIGUERE
CAPSIS International


Felipe Massa escaped with no injury after crashing his Sauber a few laps before the end of the Canadian Grand Prix yesterday.

However, the Brazilian wasn't the only "lucky" person to avoid serious injury in this accident .

While the end of the crash was recorded on television, showing the Sauber hitting the tyre wall head on - almost at full speed - the car initially brushed against the left side protection wall of the track, sending off a cloud of dust and debris.

Upon impact, the left front wheel - including the tyre, hub and brake assembly and pieces of the control arm - flew straight up into the air with amazing force, high enough to clear over the protection fence in front of grandstand 15, which is located in front of the hairpin.

For a moment it appeared that the wheel was heading straight into the crowd but it first landed on the ground in front of the grandstand... but its "flight" wasn't over yet. This huge chunk of debris touched the ground and then bounced back in the first rows of the grandstand, the spectators frantically moving away to avoid being hit by the object.

Witnesses report that the wheel made contact with at least one person but no one was seriously injured.

The sharp pieces of broken carbon fiber and the heavy mass of the wheel flying in the air straight into the crowd was a scary sight. Fortunately, the very dangerous high speed of the debris was slowed down dramatically before it reached the crowd. Motorsport will always be dangerous... and not only for the drivers.

[Kicking-back]

F1 live appear to be referencing the same "eye witnesses".

I'm not convinced.

[f1atic]

I was there.

My seat was on the entrance to turn 10, at the point where they turn in.

Massa was against the outside barriers going past me. So against the barrier that I couldn't see the car, just the pieces of it flying up into the air in front of me.

He went straight into the tires at the end of the gravel.
The left rear (I believe) came off, traveling forward at probably 90mph, hit something that sent it nearly straight up and it went over the retaining fence (with some suspension parts still attached) and landed almost perfectly in the stairway between seating in grandstand 15. It bounced once, and while it almost certainly had to hit someone, it did so with so little force that nobody was injured. It only bounce a couple of feet into the air before it came to rest there.

[Kicking-back]

Okay, so the safety features did their job. Good news.

[pirenzo]

from the ITV footage it looked as though he went head on into the barriers with the left rear wheel flailing about on its tethers. Suspension failure most likely.

[graves]

Originally posted by Kicking-back
Okay, so the safety features did their job. Good news.

Excuse me? The safety features did their job? What would have happened if it hadn't hit the stairway first, but someones head instead?

[twig]

Sarcasm graves.
Well, that was a surprise, especially when we hear the same story from a fellow ten-tenther.

I think ill go and have a look at the footage again.

[Kicking-back]

Originally posted by graves
Excuse me? The safety features did their job? What would have happened if it hadn't hit the stairway first, but someones head instead?

The eyewitness on here says the fencing took so much speed out of it, it was going very slowly and wouldn't have been a problem.

In any case, it says on the ticket "Motor-racing is dangerous".

This sort of thing is thankfully very rare.

Sure, see if any lessons can be learned, but there's no need for mass hysteria.

[jiggly_puff]

this maybe very random within this thread and i don't wish to make light of serious incidents like this- very glad to hear no one was hurt! but did anyone bag the tyre afterwards??? would they be allowed to take it home?

[Kicking-back]

We saw the marshals on TV putting the tyre and wheel away with the car - it'll be returned to the team.

You can't go stealing parts - even if they do end up off the track.

[twig]

But then again, what are they going to do with them.

[Kicking-back]

The team can look at the parts to help work out what went wrong.

[DriverT]

At least it's good that no-one was injured.