UTMC

This mornings F1 practice, looks pretty scary if you put yourself in the drivers seat.

I guess they were testing new materials or construction on the suspension and it failed pretty spectacular. No one was hurt, this time. I'm all about new innovative technologies but it seems they pushed this over the limit and since no testing is allowed they brought it to the track.

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Holy shit!

Front wheel ejection feature complete!

Seriously, as scary as that would be it looks like a surprisingly relaxed crash compared to most of the F1 wrecks I've seen, and the way they just pop off of there, like it was designed to do that... Now they just need wings to unfold and it's Bond movie gold.

/RM

I. would. be. PISSED. if I were that driver.

I'd probably chuck my helmet at somebody in charge.

Interesting how he still tries to maneuver the car via steering wheel. I would've just crossed my arms and sat back. Actually, I've done just that.

I'm glad I don't wrench for that team!

is that video pirated from youtube? It seems odd.

Video looks to be recorded of a BBC TV feed, someone held a camcorder in front of a monitor and it was the only one I found yesterday. I saw it it in Hi-Def on Speed, it surely will make it to Wind Tunnel and other moto news cause it was spectacular. This is a low ranked team so they are not in the fight for championship and driver probably just happy to drive in F1 and get paid, it it were Ferrari or McLaren I'm sure there would be some pissed off prima donna driver throwing shit in the back of the garage.

It is a good example if pushing the weight saving over the limit, hope some good comes out of it, perhaps they will allow testing? cause the wheels @ 200 mph are known to kill spectators.

Last year (2 years ago?) Red Bulls were notorious for breaking front suspension over the bumps, FIA began to pay closer attention and the problem was fixed, This year one of the new teams has been loosing front wing with some scary consequences, hope they have it fixed. All seems to come form inability to test components due to a test ban.

here's another crappy off-screen recording of that car loosing a wing and t-boning 2 other cars

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i am not an F1 fan, but a fucking ban on testing?

why??

Sisyphus wrote:Interesting how he still tries to maneuver the car via steering wheel. I would've just crossed my arms and sat back. Actually, I've done just that.

A few years ago, I pulled some old guy out of his car after he had driven it over a guard rail and into the harbor. When they pulled the car out of the water, they found that it was in reverse. In the few seconds after he drove in, he must have put it into reverse to back out, before reality set in. Pretty funny. They say that is pretty common.

As far as pushing technological limits too far. Americas Cup racing is full of examples of unbelievable failures due to overzealous weight reduction. In one race a few years ago. several boats sunk instantly when their masts were driven through the bottom of the hull from the strain in the rigging. Too far.

sun rat wrote:i am not an F1 fan, but a fucking ban on testing?

why??

In their infinite wisdom governing body decided that ban on testing will ultimately cut costs. Big teams like Ferrari, Renault and Mercedes had complete race teams with drivers, pit crew, engineers, car haulers ets, going to tracks and testing for weeks at a time, smaller teams could not afford it and they argued that it gives unfair advantage to bigger teams. Now with only 4 tests all winter (3 of them were rained out) none of the teams had any real road time. Big teams like Ferrari spent 100's of hours in their fancy wind tunnel with moving road surface testing whatever they can while small teams just sat and waited to get to the first race and find out that their cars fall apart on the bumps. The wheel ejection crash was Red Bull junior team (Scudderia Torro Roso) which serves as test team for Red Bull senior team which is in the Championship hunt, IMHO giving the Senior team unfair advantage. Their recent results are a proof of that.

Another stupid rule is no spare car allowed at the track, so if the driver wrecks the primary car all they have is a spare "tub" with just wire loom run through and they have to build it from ground up, sometimes it takes the crew all night to do so, countless hours, tired crew, and no cost cutting what so ever! I once had to build a car at the track, took us few days and it sucked. We were first ones in and last ones out working 18 hour days and he car we built had many small issues that could take days to solve. Ultimately we made it to the grid and the engine blew up on the warm up lap, none of our fault, still the whole team was gutted.

Looking closely at the vid, the actual suspension members are all still in place after the wheels have come off, looks like the wheels ripped themselves straight out of there.
So, either a single part failed, messed up the geometry of the front of the car (like a horizontal stabilizer connecting the suspension mountings or something) or multiple parts failed at exactly the same moment, and hence exactly the same load, same parts on either side - which means that their quality control guy is either a total idiot or a fucking genius.
Looking at how the wheels just fly off, but the wishbones aren't collapsing on each other indicates that the upright bit holding them apart (and where the break calipers and wheels are mounted on) stayed pretty much in place (I find that difficult to tell directly with all the fucking aerodynamic nonsense obscuring the view), and in shape.
So, did the fucking wheel bolts (is that what you call them? central wheel nut goes on there) rip out of the uprights or just straight snap off entirely or what?

I wouldn't be chucking my helmet because I was a prima donna, or mad that I lost out of the race, I'd be chucking my helmet coz someone could get killed that way.
Understanding the "no test" rule takes some of the bite out of my hypothetical hissy fit. Though it would probably just be directed at the regulators who banned testing.

I'd say the regulators would carry most of the blame, because the engineers would be blaming them as well. Designing something is one thing, but not being allowed to test it? That's fucked up. I wouldn't design anything for these guys, then.

From what I've heard today during qualifying the right "upright" failed, they had made a new batch from some experimental material and were testing it before it is used on Red Bull senior team which is once again qualified both cars on front row which is amazing dominance!

I guess left side failed because the right side failed? in the video it looks like simultaneous event. Not sure how that works, but the whole assembly with brakes, hubs and safety tethers went on outside the track and one wheel hit the camera another went over the wall and landed in the spectator area, no injuries were reported.

I remember few occasions when wheels nailed spectators and people got hurt, this might be one of them, I remember waking up at a crack of dawn and watching it live... 15 out of 20 cars taken out! Almost like NASCAR

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When licking the flap of the envelope, sometimes you cut your tongue!

Supposedly that's what F1 is about, right? Trying new things? Restricting new technology leads to restrictor plates and other NASCAR stupidity.

maniacles wrote:When licking the flap of the envelope, sometimes you cut your tongue!

Supposedly that's what F1 is about, right? Trying new things? Restricting new technology leads to restrictor plates and other NASCAR stupidity.

Yeah, but no restrictions at all leads to one mfg/team purchasing the championship.

Remember that Mclaren Can-Am vacuum-cleaner car?

...and we all know what happened to Can-Am...