Note that Wehrlein participated in pre season testing and Friday practice for the Australian GP. I tend to not think that the Giovinazzi substitution was planned going into the GP weekend. Otherwise why let Wehrlein in the car on Friday vs. putting Giovinazzi in right away to give him more time in the car. I wonder if there was a question about his health after the ROC crash beyond the back injury and that this was evaluated during the pre season testing and then most definately during Friday practice?
When I think of driver fitness, I tend to think of being able to sustain G loads on the neck over the course of a race weekend. I know it is much more than that, but I think of musculoskeletal conditioning first. But "fitness" is a very generic term and could cover many things. Recovery from a back injury may be 100% accurate, or it also a very easy to use as cover for something else.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chillibowl
yeah it is strange that he was cleared by the FIA doctors to race but ultimately chose not to.
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I don't know the details of this, but does anyone know what the protocol is used by the FIA/F1 regarding saying a driver is "fit"? What do they examine and test? Specifically does F1 have a concussion protocol? I looked online and I can't seem to find a definitive answer. This is an interesting document (from 2015)...
http://www.fiainstitute.com/document...Medical-5a.pdf
It's clearly a topic of discussion within FIA and elsewhere. And has had more focus in other motorsports (such as NASCAR) which I think has an explicit protocol. I have to wonder if he was technically cleared, but by a protocol that may not cover all things that might actually cause problems during a event.
If you watch the ROC crash with Wehrlein (plenty of videos on YouTube), to me.. he takes a good hit right on the helmet as the car rolls into the barricades. While his back may have been injured, I wonder if what is really going on is some long term concussion issues? And if the FIA does not have an explicit concussion protocol, he might be technically cleared, but still experiencing problems while in the car. That Sauber may be evaluating his progress race by race and fully understanding that based upon other concussion protocols used elsewhere, that he may not be able to return anytime soon. Hence the potential for missing at minimum one and maybe two more races.
Richard