Holy airborne racecar batman!

5 people injured including the driver, Sophia Floersch.

Wowsers!

a reply to: Chadwickus

I hope they get well soon. I can´t rule out mechanical problems but the driver in red was way to fast and driving into the inner side of the corner much faster than the yellow one.
She could have lost traction due to a damn bump in the road or who knows.

Look at this crash, experienced driver, superb hardware, yet it only takes a small oil leak from someone in front of you and away you fly.


However, if telemetry and analysis tells that the driver was just reckless, they should pull the drivers license for life. I´m sure they will turn every rock on this one.

a reply to: verschickter

Hopefully footage showing the start of the crash surfaces, because she was flying! Figuratively and literally.

Brake failure maybe, I’ve never seen anything like it before.

a reply to: Chadwickus

Sophia is only 17 I think .... her Wikipedia page mentions a minor spine injury but thankfully it looks like she will be ok. That was frightening.

a reply to: Chadwickus

Wow , I've seen some spectacular crashes in my time but that one takes the cake , just as well she went in backwards I guess.
Tempted to make a quip about female racing drivers but I'll bite my tongue.
Hope those injured fully recover from their injuries.

Shortly after the second restart Florsch appeared to have lost control before Lisboa corner as her car is pictured travelling backwards, before launching over a rival’s car, flying through the fences and crunching into a temporary structure, in front of the Lisboa Hotel, on the outside of the corner where photographers and marshals were stationed.

Probably lost control braking on cold tyres following the restart , no serious injuries but Sophia Floersch is having an operation on her back tomorrow.

Just wanted to let everybody know that I am fine but will be going into Surgery tomorow morning. Thanks to the @fia and @hwaag_official @MercedesAMGF1 who are taking great care of me. Thanks to everybody for the Supporting messages. Update soon.

Of the others injured, Joe Saward reports: “The others involved include a marshal Chan Cha In, who suffered facial lacerations, a broken jaw plus an abrasion to his upper abdomen wall. A photographer Chan Weng Wang suffered a laceration to his liver and Japan’s Minami Hiroyuki suffered a concussion.”
www.grandprix247.com...

Lucky escape for all involved.

a reply to: Chadwickus

Could be loss of traction because of being airborn for a split second, too. Telemetry will nail it down, I´m pretty confident it can be reconstructed.

You can´t do much you´re doing those speeds and some circumstance cut´s the underpressure that is needed for down force.

Racecars on such a level are basically flying above the track if not for the downforce that is needed to get traction on the tarmac and put the energy into forward motion.

I´ve been airborn (front wheels lifted while going down a hill doing ~190km/h) for a split second and in that situation, you can only eff up. Turn the wheels a bit while airborn, get contact and worst case you´ll flip sideways.

Lucky for me, I got back on earth safe, although the front tires had flat surfaces after I hit the brakes and stayed there until I came to a complete stop, after flying through a stack of tires.

a reply to: verschickter

She had already lost control and was coming in backward before hitting that corner and car.

link

a reply to: Grimpachi

I know, where did I state something contrary?

I can´t rule out mechanical problems but the driver in red was way to fast and driving into the inner side of the corner much faster than the yellow one. She could have lost traction due to a damn bump in the road or who knows.

I added emphasis

Omg the excuses lol.

That woman needs to never be on a track again. Clearly has zero clue how to handle that machine. Really, I would sue the league if I were the team that got hit for that nonsense. That was at least 120 mph she came in on that turn.

I would sue her personally as well until bankrupt so as to never see that happen again.

Also those cars are not "flying above the track". They have incredible drag and downforce to keep them on the ground. They are very good at turning at high speed, but thats it. Any bike can go as fast in a straight line.

a reply to: SR1TX

They would fly if not for the pressure difference that acts like a vacuum cleaner sucking the floor to the ground. If that flow cuts because you run over a bump at high speeds and the suspension isn´t ironing it out instantly, you get a wing effect.

Because most systems that utilize this effect have a flat bottom attachment with small canards and tunnels to get the underpressure at the right spots.

If the flow cuts because the front lifts (bump, suspension, whatever reason) the air is rushing in like an axe that goes into wood.



But I agree, flying above the track wasn´t the right term. Still, I would be cautious before you accuse a professional race car driver of "not being able to drive". I reserve my judgement until I have more information. But I guess you are the expert judging her driving experience from a grainy short clip with zero info on the moment where the mess started to unfold.

a reply to: Chadwickus

That was incredible....

That could have been sooo much worse in countless other locations.

Everyone got really lucky on that wipe out hahah.

a reply to: SR1TX

Seems you have no clue yourself. She was involved in a get together with another track rival before the turn. The car suffered damage and was traveling at 276 mph in the straight before the corner and was clocked at 170 into the curve when she could not control the car from the damage taken before the curve.

Thankfully she survived and is likely headed towards a full recovery after suffering a spinal fracture. Unknown which of the 2 drivers was the "cause" of the pre crash accident but has nothing to do with her ability to drive as she has already proven her skills. She is talented enough that Red Bull is scouting her for their Formula 3 team. She has been racing since the age of 5, when many are still in potty training.

During the main race, on Lap 4, she made contact with fellow driver Jehan Daruvala, who was reportedly slowing for erroneously-displayed yellow flags on the straight between Mandarin Corner (Turn 3) and Lisboa Bend (Turn 4).

Still an ongoing investigation but track Marshals could be at fault for the false yellow flag. The driver in front of her was slowing because of the flag which had been put down as she entered the straight and thus damaged her car.

a reply to: Chadwickus

Bumpin' break failure Batman!

The driver was coming in way WAY to hot to divebomb, maybe she did the the brakes exiting the previous corner and didn't realize it. As for airborne cars well those open wheelers are jet fighters on wheels, if they don't have enough downforce they can Literally take off, I put emphasis in literally because it happens, not enough downforce and those things take off like a kid throwing a shoddy paper plane.

It's a miracle no there were no fatalities, I will say that in all my years of watching motor racing i've never seen anything like that, I watched it a few times to make sure it wasn't CGI. Let's hope those injured are on the mend and someone got on the line to air crash investigations.

a reply to: DJMSN

Correct. You don´t get to sit in a formula car unless you have, time after time, proofen that you can handle it.

Errors and mistakes can happen of course, that does not mean the person can´t drive.

Wow a flying car eventually

Just lucky nobody was killed

a reply to: verschickter

Of course, but her abilities to drive are not in question. The other drivers who have more experience have all shown respect of her skills. Everyone can make a mistake, mistakes at 276 mph often are more catastrophic than spilled milk. The poster alluded to her being a female as to the cause of the accident.

It is still under investigation but the straight between 3 and 4 curves displayed a yellow flag for the car in front of her. Initial accounts are that as she exited turn 3 into the straight that the yellow had been removed. The driver in front had already slowed for that erroneous flag. She tangled with that car at 276 mph which damaged the car to where control was lost. She went into a spin as she entered turn 4 clocked at 170, made contact with a second car catapulting over it and the rest followed.

a reply to: DJMSN
Like I wrote, too, no question about her ability to drive.

I think you mean 276 km/h, not miles per hour, though. 276 in miles clocks over 440km/h.

a reply to: verschickter

The article I read did state 276 kmh, my mistake. Thank you for clarifying. And I saw your post, my response was meant more for his "female" accusation. She is by many accounts the next star if she returns to racing after recovery. I wouldnt blame her if she didn't. She just needs a good team behind her. Hopefully she is able to make it back. And I agree that the Formula series doesn't allow anyone behind the wheel much less a race without plenty of qualifying skills.

originally posted by: verschickter
a reply to: DJMSN
Like I wrote, too, no question about her ability to drive.

Perhaps not but I think there are questions to be asked about putting a relatively inexperienced 17 year old driver into that series.

More information on the crash from her wiki page.

During the main race, on Lap 4, she made contact with fellow driver Jehan Daruvala, who was reportedly slowing for erroneously-displayed yellow flags on the straight between Mandarin Corner (Turn 3) and Lisboa Bend (Turn 4). This caused her car to spin round out of control, catapulting her into Lisboa Bend at high speed, launching off Sho Tsuboi's car and through the catch-fencing in the process
en.wikipedia.org...

a reply to: gortex
We learn from mistakes, but of course those questions will be asked.

She may lack experience but her reflexes and information processing should be top notch. Just watch 14-18 year old gamers extremly excell. I saw my son gaming counter-strike around 15 years ago, you should have seen him empty the server. I could not even make out what he was shooting at it was just a steady stream of pictures for me although I know how to play that game, too. I played it in the beta stage and up to 1.1 or so.

At a certain age you can only iron out that deficit in speed and eye-hand coordination with experience. But to collect experience, you need to go to the edge.

A car driver can have zero accidents over 30 years and totally overreact if the rear overtakes him. If you never went over the edge with your car, machine or whatever equipment you try to excell, you won´t learn from those mistakes.

I would never sit in my current fun machine if I had not made countless mistakes but learned from them. I never crashed a car before I took off but I went to the edge many times and sometimes, far over it. I still have the video this moment when you loose traction and your car starts to lift up, I nearly shat my pants.

You´re just a projectile with unknown target at that moment in time.

I´d like to see to onboard cam back 1 minute from when it happened. Until then, I reserve my judgement.