Where to Start? (New F1 Fan)

[DrFerry]

Aftermath interview with Grosjean.
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[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by DrFerry

Wow. I had no idea this had happened because I no longer watch cable TV, or network TV. As the pit boss said, "that's an act of God". There are no coincidences. Grosjean was blessed to be able to walk away.

I see many videos of folks on this forum doing track day HPDE events and Time Trial events while wearing no fire rated driving gloves or even an FIA fire rated driver's suit, not to mention nomex underwear, while at the same time having spent tens of thousands on mods for their cars i.e. track wheels, track tires, big brakes, aero, motor, tunes, exhaust, seats, etc. etc.

Anybody venturing out onto any track for a high speed event should see this video. I've said it before, "it's hard to put a fire out with your bare hands". As a professional driver, Grosjean probably had the benefit of training and knew not to take deep breaths to avoid damage to his lungs from smoke inhalation and searing heat, as well as to do his best to try and remain calm. That's assuming he wasn't unconscious.

He survived, but look at all the safety gear he was wearing. An act of God.

They say Romain Grosjean is the Phoenix of the fire ..

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by DrFerry

Aftermath interview with Grosjean.
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https://youtu.be/QDT-tMtdfSo

So calm and collected RoGro looked as he squeezed through the Almighty given tight gap in the armco going at his own slow but sure pace. He takes the saying of 'never rush into anything' to a new meaning.

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

Romain Grosjean's miraculous escape from a huge fireball crash at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix sent shockwaves across the track and through Formula 1 fans across the world.

This is what happened...

Full to the brim with 110kg of fuel was the tank behind him and it split in the exact place where the rear end separated from the monocoque.

[DrFerry]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

Full to the brim with 110kg of fuel was the tank behind him and it split in the exact place where the rear end separated from the monocoque.

IF the car had not split and separated, then his helmet might have not made it totally through the Armco thereby pinning him underneath it. Some of the 3D animations show this survival cell separation as a sort of hinge point forcing the survival cell through to the other side of the Armco and coming to rest within inches of the gap between the Armco top rail and intact cockpit halo rail.

Squeezing and twisting through such a gap when the cockpit was on its side during a fire with his foot pinned under one of the pedals was truly miraculous IMO.

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by DrFerry

IF the car had not split and separated, then his helmet might have not made it totally through the Armco thereby pinning him underneath it. Some of the 3D animations show this survival cell separation as a sort of hinge point forcing the survival cell through to the other side of the Armco and coming to rest within inches of the gap between the Armco top rail and intact cockpit halo rail.

Squeezing and twisting through such a gap when the cockpit was on its side during a fire with his foot pinned under one of the pedals was truly miraculous IMO.

I think he was very lucky , that he didn't hit a pole from the armco frontally .
That would have split the car lengthwise ...

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by DrFerry

IF the car had not split and separated, then his helmet might have not made it totally through the Armco thereby pinning him underneath it. Some of the 3D animations show this survival cell separation as a sort of hinge point forcing the survival cell through to the other side of the Armco and coming to rest within inches of the gap between the Armco top rail and intact cockpit halo rail.

Squeezing and twisting through such a gap when the cockpit was on its side during a fire with his foot pinned under one of the pedals was truly miraculous IMO.

Agree that he was lucky the car split at that point through the armco mount and he would have been trapped in the cockpit though with the fire risk reduced but still possible. Indeed the car is designed so that the rear should separate in a serious accident depending on angle of impact and he possibly had more chance of getting out with the separation and fire with even more luck that the barrier did not block his exit completely. Really it was 50/50 either way and he struck lucky through being calm and not panicking.

[overcoil]

It is just crazy the F1 incidences-trauma.
There was a discussion that a number of Indy drivers are just not the same after hitting the wall.

Felipe Massa 2009
MIka Hakkinen 1995
Michele Alboreto 1991

At least in Moto GP the riders fall and slide a distance but the often times brutal decelerations in F1.

The way F1 is marketed or presented as an elegant racing series when these drivers are crazy adrenalin fueled.

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by DrFerry

IF the car had not split and separated, then his helmet might have not made it totally through the Armco thereby pinning him underneath it. Some of the 3D animations show this survival cell separation as a sort of hinge point forcing the survival cell through to the other side of the Armco and coming to rest within inches of the gap between the Armco top rail and intact cockpit halo rail.

Squeezing and twisting through such a gap when the cockpit was on its side during a fire with his foot pinned under one of the pedals was truly miraculous IMO.

Romain tugged his halo with his arm to get out of the burning hell...

[DrFerry]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

Romain tugged his halo with his arm to get out of the burning hell...

Amazing presence of mind after such enormous G forces from the crash. Oh and he did all that while sitting inside a blazing fire.

[DrFerry]

Aftermath Video: This video is perhaps old news for some. However, based upon my observations of various videos it seems to me the corner marshals fire extinguishers were ineffective. Moreover, they appear to move slowly and cumbersomely due to the marshal’s antiquated fire suits making running more difficult. Worth a watch unless this old news for you.
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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zdfkM5p9-Ng
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[M3 boi]

I’m noticing a trend…

[NYG]

Drive to Survive is great to get your interests peaking. You get exposed to some personalities too which makes the sport more enjoyable when you know a bit more about each driver. Unfortunately, there's a whole lot of it that is fake/exaggerated. One example is last season they showed a tense situation between Norris and Ricciardo at McLaren and realistically, there was no tension there at all between the drivers. Only Ricciardo and the car.

There are currently 3 legends on the grid: Verstappen (Current 2x World Champion that ended the Hamilton/Mercedes terror), Hamilton (7x World Champion - only Schumacher has as many; absolute legend as a driver but his personality is loved by many and despised by many too), Alonso (2x World Champion who has a history of horrible business decisions by switching to terrible teams, would easily have twice as many championships by now)

There are only two drivers on the grid who in terms of skill level are almost impossible to defeat in a decent car: Verstappen and Hamilton; Verstappen is younger and more aggressive so even as a biased fan of his, it's hard to deny that from a purely skills point of view he has an edge on Lewis. The battle between these two will always essentially come down to the constructor and Red Bull Racing has only recently usurped Mercedes as the best constructor.

There is 1 driver right now that has serious potential to become a world champion: Charles LeClerc

There is 1 constructor right now that has serious potential to become the constructor champion: Ferrari - they probably have the fastest car at the moment but are plagued with mismanagement, reliability, setup issues. I think they may be a dark horse to win next year.

There is another driver who would have serious potential if he ever gets a half-way decent car: Lando Norris (Very popular choice)

Besides Red Bull Racing, Ferrari, Mercedes - there are 7 other teams worthy of support/being a fan of.

The most worthy is probably McLaren. They are responsible for creating the greatest F1 car of all time (MP4/4) driven by the greatest pilot of all time (Ayrton Senna) ran by the legendary Rod Dennis. Very rough years for them lately but they'll bounce back at some point. They were my team for a very long time but they got a little too "woke" for me lately. I've been a Verstappen fan since he got out of karting so it felt natural for me to be an RBR guy now.

The second most worthy is probably Alpine who is essentially Renault - they're moving up the order pretty quickly and have a lot of history in the sport.

Williams is one of the greatest F1 constructors of all time but you would have never guessed it based on their performances for a very long time.

Audi will be joining F1 in 2026 and I guarantee they will be a dominant team so very easy team to get in on the fan train early for.

[M5Rick]

Yet another vid of RoGro's crash, this one an animation.