COOPER: A Raindrop On A Lotus Leaf

Formula 1

COOPER: A Raindrop On A Lotus Leaf

Thankfully it’s been a while since we’ve had a high profile fatality in motor sport, but now we’ve had two in eight days...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted October 24, 2011 Balen (BEL)

Team members line the pitlane as the drivers complete five memorial laps to honor Dan Wheldon, driver of the No.77 Dallara Honda, who died of injuries in a massive fifteen car crash during the Las Vegas Indy 300. (Photo: Getty Images)

A few years ago I discussed the death of Ayrton Senna with George Harrison, who of course combined his passion for racing with an ongoing spiritual quest.

The former Beatle likened the Brazilian’s accident to “a raindrop on a lotus leaf.” In other words on landing a droplet could run in any direction, much like luck in life.

On that that dark day at Imola, Ayrton was hit on the head by his own front suspension – had it passed a few centimeters either side, he would have walked away from that accident.

Thankfully it’s been a while since we’ve had a high profile fatality in motor sport, but now we’ve had two in eight days. For both Dan Wheldon and Marco Simoncelli, fate decreed that the raindrop ran the wrong way.

It’s inevitable that the world has linked the two tragedies together, for even if their disciplines are in reality very different, they were both true racers. Two guys who were frontrunners in their fields, and were charismatic personalities who were popular with fans, have now gone. Both accidents occurred in races, in front of millions of viewers, making the impact all the greater.

The incidents had little in common other than the sheer twist of fate that George alluded to. Both men had the misfortune to experience the sort of accident that all the safety efforts of their respective sanctioning bodies simply cannot cater for.

In bike racing there is little the sport can do to protect a rider who falls into the path of others. In Simoncelli’s case, his tumble seemed to defy the laws of physics as his bike speared back across the pack instead of sliding out towards the gravel.

Equally open wheelers, be they Formula Fords or Grand Prix cars, are at their most vulnerable when they take off, especially if they subsequently make contact with debris fences and their unyielding support posts. Had Wheldon’s car dipped down and struck the Safer barrier instead of the fence, things may have turned out differently.

If there are any positives to be drawn, it’s that the relatively rarity of such tragedies in the modern era emphasizes how much safety standards have improved over the years. In bikes, obviously the focus is on the circuits and the riders’ equipment – in cars, there is much more that can be done in terms of the actual machinery.

There was some ill-informed criticism floating around about IndyCar safety over the past week. Much of it was unjustified, because it’s very clear that over the past few decades the sanctioning bodies (and I include CART/Champcar) and the engineers and chassis manufacturers have made huge strides. The fact that aside from Wheldon everyone else escaped essentially unhurt from the massive Vegas accident tells its own story.

For all the advances in chassis impact resistance and the likes of HANS devices and Safer barriers, some types of accidents can defy all the technology. Flying wheels remain a curse in all forms of open cockpit motor sport (and indeed in any kind of racing when it comes to the risk to officials and spectators). There’s been talk of cockpit canopies, and it remains to be seen whether they could one day be made to work.

And as mentioned earlier, impacts with debris fencing can have devastating consequences. In IndyCars alone, one thinks of the accidents involving Tony Renna and Jeff Krosnoff, plus huge shunts where the driver survived but suffered awful injuries, such as those involving Kenny Brack and more recently, Mike Conway.

I was at Suzuka back in 1992 when top Japanese F3000 racer Hitoshi Ogawa was killed after he hit another car, cleared the Turn One tire wall, and struck a debris fence post. Only a couple of years ago Romain Grosjean took off over the back of another GP2 car at Monaco’s Tabac corner, and he too cleared the tires and struck the fence, fortunately without harm on that occasion. Such accidents can happen anywhere, anytime, as can those involving flying wheels. F1 can rightly be proud of its safety record since 1994, but there’s no room for complacency.

It’s a difficult one. The fences are there to protect spectators, but they simply do not mix with tumbling racing cars, and especially open-wheelers. Paul Tracy suggested last week that perhaps there is a role for a bulletproof Plexiglas-type material to replace the current debris fences. It’s an intriguing concept, but it may prove impossible to turn into reality.

In the meantime perhaps there is scope for at least improving the design of fences that we have at tracks around the world, so that they don’t cause such devastating damage to cars.

The efforts of IndyCar to improve chassis safety cannot be questioned. However safety isn’t always just about equipment. The wisdom of running that race at high-banked Las Vegas, and with a 34-car grid, is another matter, one that people far more qualified than I have tried to address over the past week or so.

I didn’t see the Vegas race – it was the middle of the night in Korea – but while in Montreal back in June I watched the Texas event on my hotel TV. It was exhilarating to see the cars perform at such a track, but it was also downright scary, because of the seemingly tiny margins that the drivers were playing with, and the apparent lack of a safety net.

Formula One drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton paid tribute to Indy 500 winner and fellow Brit Dan Wheldon, who died after a crash in Las Vegas on Sunday. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

By all accounts, things were that much closer to the edge at Las Vegas, which came as no surprise to drivers who had expressed their reservations before the race.

The sport we all love can never be and will never be totally safe, and the competitors all understand what they are exposing themselves to every time they strap on their helmets.

Sometimes that raindrop simply runs the wrong way, and there’s nothing anyone can do. But lessons can be learned from any accident, fatal or otherwise, and there is always scope to reduce the risks. Let’s hope that is the legacy left by Dan Wheldon and Marco Simoncelli.

Adam Cooper notched up his 26th season as a racing journalist in 2010. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam Cooper

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR

F1: No Interest In Taking Over Lola, Says Caterham
A Caterham spokesman says the team is not planning to buy the troubled…
F1: Sauber CEO Kaltenborn Handed One-Third Of Team
Sauber CEO Monisha Kaltenborn now owns a one-third stake in the Sauber…
F1: Race Car Maker Lola Hits Financial Crisis
Legendary racing car manufacturer Lola is in financial trouble...…