Burti

[Liz]

Am I the only one who cares about poor Burti? Here he was very nearly killed three different times this weekend and he is still upright and walking - and he ran back and got into the spare car and back onto the grid after two huge crashes ...

And everyone on Speedvision ignored him so they could show us TGF listening to the radio and bimbo shots of DC's new girlfriend.

I for one am very very glad Burti came through this weekend without serious injury or death, and I call it a tribute to the strength of the cars and the providence of God.

And I do think it was good of TGF to immediately go up to him and be certain he was all right and reassure him. Not everyone would have done that, and I will give credit where it is due. After his own big accident this week it probably scared him just as much as it scared Burti!

[bella]

since luciano moved out of cambridge (fool), i haven't really noticed him.

but despite all the handbagging he receives from doubters, he's a good driver. psr didn't recruit him for nothing in f3, and it'll show eventually. once the world stops tilting every few seconds, and it returns to its correct colours.

[Gerard]

Thank God nothing serious happened to Luciano.
This could have been a very bad weekend for motorsport.

And indeed, credit to Michael Schumacher for immediately going up to Burti to inform if he was all right.
He went even further. After Burti was examined by Sid Watkins and was allowed to race, Schumacher again asked, through his radio, whether he was all right.

[riusnow]

Burti is a very lucky man. There's no way he could have seen MS until the last second when it was too late. (And then a good view of the sky!) Still wondering what happened to the Ferrari though.
It was nice to see MS signing autographs and waving to the crowd when he left the race. Those track officials must have been sooo excited to stand there and talk to him.

[Liz]

With a race going on in front of them and a near-fatal accident that just occurred, they are distracted by getting autographs from TGF.

That makes a whole lot of sense to me. NOT.

[Ferrari Girl]

I know, poor guy. The crash was awful, I couldn't believe it.

I'm so glad he's ok though.

[riusnow]

Obviously with Burti walking on his own and MS talking to him show he is alright. I'm not sure if showing Burti-vision for the rest of the race would have proven that point any more. Besides showing MS as a friendly person proves that he is not the monster many believe he is.

[Mania]

Burti had a miserable weekend. Glad to see he's okay. He showed a lot of guts getting back into the car after a shunt like that.

Michael was just being Michael. Like most other people, he did not want to see a fellow driver get hurt, especially a young driver still finding his feet in the big time. Michael handled the situation really well.

I didnt mind shots of DC's "bimbo girlfriend". I do wonder though where he gets them from! Maybe I should change my nickname to Square Frog or something

Anyway, I agree with Liz's observation on the marshalls - they were busy chatting away with Schumy while they should have been concentrating on the race.

It's situations such as these that the FIA need to look at to improve track safety instead of playing around with the speed of the cars.

[Liz]

You can bet if TGF had had that accident we would have seen it every five minutes for the entire show. And I wonder at the good sense of anybody allowing TGF to stand that close to the barricades during the race. Isn't that sort of dangerous? Especially when he isn't paying attention? What if a wheel came over the fence ... no, it doesn't bear thinking about.

Incidentally, after we saw DC walking through the forest we never saw him again. Did he just disappear into the woods or what?

Mr. Burti is a lucky man and I hope someone has revived his mother by now and he has called her to reassure her that he's okay and explain that he'd really rather stay a racing driver than become a priest or something.

[EERO]

It was an ugly crash and I'm glad he's okay. I'll bet he's pretty tired of the close up-view of the first turn wall though.

He's had a tough season, that crash in Melbourne was pretty nasty. I admire his tenacity in the wake of all he has experienced this year.

[francis]

I'm in agreement that we are all relieved about Burti's escape. However I think an equally lucky man was (I think) Bernoldi. If you look at the re-runs carefully, one of Burti's wheels landed on top of the Arrows and must have been only centimetres away from the side of Bernoldi's head. All in all it was a miraculous escape for many. I'm not surprised that Burti then made a few mistakes in race part 2, his brain must have been pretty scrambled. On another note I hope Burti has some better future luck. I followed hin in F3 and he's a good driver who given the right breaks could do really well

[Ralf's Girl]

All credit to TGF for checking straight away whether he was okay. I was initially worried about Bernoldi as well, seeing as Burti's car was perilously close to landing on top of Bernoldi's cockpit.

It's terrifying to think that a few years ago, Burti wouldn't have walked away from an accident like that. Even though the wheel tethers did their usual poor job, the tougher side-impact tests etc. really did the job.

[Liz]

Yes, I should have put Bernoldi in this thread as well. I bet he nearly passed out when he saw the replay of that one! Remember a Champ Car race in which Mo Gugelmin's car rode up over Patrique Carpentier's car and the wheel hit him in the head not once, but several times? Sometimes the hand of God is just on you, I guess. But all praise to those who have worked to make those cars stronger in every possible way.

And seeing the replay of last year's Alesi/Diniz crash on this track reminded me to be very thankful for them being spared as well ...

[bella]

one thing that amazed me was the strength of the roll hoop. by how much was this improved after diniz' accident? it certainly made the difference...

[Tristan]

That Diniz/Alesi one was one of the worst crashes I've seen in F1. No rolls of flips but the SPEED! I wouldn't TALK to Diniz ever again after that, but there they are, in the same team.........

Luciano's had several "big ones" this year. remeber Adelaide?? And thet one at Ste. Devote was by far and away the worst smash I've seen this year. How he got out of THAT I will never know.

LUCIANO BURTI!!! THE NEW ZONTA!!!

[downforce]

Just for your info Liz, they showed the 'Burti-airborne' accident throughout the coverage here on StarSports.

Im throwing in a livewire here...if Michael was the Prost driver he wudve noticed the slow moving Ferrari earlier on, even before the "curtain" effect created by the BAR and Jordan i think.

Yep, i believe the hand of god had something to do with Burti's escape...so similar to Pedro cartwheeling onto Rubens' car in Monza'00.

BTW Liz, am surprised the "Race restarted for TGF?" thread isnt up yet...Jacques smirked and hes half Canadian too rite?

[Liz]

I'm sure Zonta had flashbacks when he saw that as well.

[bella]

read the q&a with him on autosport if you haven't already.

the boy's a class act

[R]

It was good fortune that all cars and pieces were positioned and landed where they did. The outcome of that accident could easily have been nasty.

[Speedworx]

Burti was one lucky guy.

[economy_waffle]

ha now that was like scary seeing that live!!! i saw ayrton senna and i did see ratzenburger die on like recorded tape, i also saw greg moore's horrific crash live. it wasnt the barell roll i was worried about, it was the speed of it connecting with the wall. 2 years ago he wouldve been in plaster.

[Dan Friel]

I think 15 years ago he might have been plaster.. Lucky he swerved at the last minute and didn't hit MS head on - that could have been big trouble.

Very spectactular accident, but don't think there was any danger to Burti, the guys still on the floor were in trouble though!!