Thread: WEC 2017 WEC Season
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Old 5 May 2017, 03:12 (Ref:3731114)   #415
chernaudi
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The ACO have issued a clarification on their medical light system: for now, it's advisory/being evaluated, but it's primarily the ACO doctor's discretion as to if a driver should continue.

However, that raises in my mind as many questions as answers, like what should the ACO do in a situlation where there's a high G impact, but the car is clearly drive-able and the driver is clearly OK? I'm thinking Loic Duval for example at LM in '15. He was clearly uninjured, and the car in drivable shape, but I can imagine the light getting triggered just because he spun into the barriers at 190+mph.

Personally, I think that the medical light has more to do with an FIA/ACO concussion protocol than the likelihood of back, neck, or other traumatic injuries, including those with delayed reponses, such as Allan McNish fainting from a concussion at LM '04 after he drove his Audi back to the pits (ironically the same thing that the medical light is intended to prevent/discourage), or the internal injuries that Allan Simonsen died from a few years ago.

Granted, I think that the argument can be made that if the car is movable under it's own power unassisted, a case can probably be made that the driver faired much better than the car. If the car is crippled or stopped, then I think it's fair for the medical personnel to make a judgement. This also isn't like NASCAR (until this season), as the ACO has a traveling safety team with the same main people in it that attend every race.
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