[WEC Race] 6 Hours Of Spa-Francorchamps 3-5 May 2018

[canaglia]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

That was an awfully hard stop from a front impact. Scary stuff.

Actually there is no soft crash zone if something fails when riding through eau rouge

[Irie]

Nice hearing Alonso and Nakajima talk

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by canaglia

Actually there is no soft crash zone if something fails when riding through eau rouge

Not quite that simple due to how the body and head move around in the car in impacts from different directions. Front impact has the head move forward, and body has a bit of movement forward etc.

That was a horrible sudden stop. Unfortunately there is now an ambulance and tarp up.

[Coach Ep]

At least there was movement from inside the cockpit when the first marshal arrives at the car.

Looked very much like a flat tire or suspension collapse judging from the sudden drop at the left rear and change of direction of the car.

[Irie]

Someone posted a picture on reddit of the car before the crash. Could it be that the car shut itself of?

[Akrapovic]

It could be, but the lights cutting out could be as simple as the electrical connection in the front bodywork getting jolted over the bump. I don't think we'll know for a while.

[Irie]

Ambulance leaves the crash site

[RedSquirrel]

Originally Posted by Irie

Someone posted a picture on reddit of the car before the crash. Could it be that the car shut itself of?

Yeah, as I said above, the headlights definitely went out but I thought I saw them come on again.
Yep, the replay on the stream confirms this.

[Damian Baldi]

It looks like the car bottom touch the ground and it change the direction directly to the fences.

[Damian Baldi]

They are saying the he broke both legs

[RedSquirrel]

Originally Posted by Damian Baldi

They are saying the he broke both legs

Who is saying this?

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by RedSquirrel

Who is saying this?

I believe Spanish TV coverage has reported this.

[RedSquirrel]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

I believe Spanish TV coverage has reported this.

Damn. Poor lad.

[Damian Baldi]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

I believe Spanish TV coverage has reported this.

It's a very amateur broadcast, so take it from who comes from.

[Fiorentina 1]

I've seem the accident on twitter. big twitch in the middle of eau rouge. all news source says broken lower leg bones. poor guy....

[Mike E]

To nobody's surprise, there are money problems at Manor.

http://www.dailysportscar.com/2018/0...on-opener.html

[Irie]

short term cash flow problem

Everytime I read these words I cannot help it but think they're bust

[XtC24]

Regrettably, LMP1 seems weakend now. Rebellion by Oreca seems to be the fastest and maybe also most reliable and is the newest car.
BR1s - all had some problems + slower pace.
Bykolles - little amount of laps + poor pace so far.
Ginetta - non existent.

The battle between the privateers seems questionable. Hope it will get better in the race.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Irie

Everytime I read these words I cannot help it but think they're bust

Maybe they're measuring on a geological time scale. Everything we do on that scale is short term.

I don't expect the DragonSpeed car to make the start tomorrow, but that's speculation.

[bobec]

Originally Posted by TF110

1 race does not a car make. The TS050 won 5 races last year alone. Le Mans can catch anyone out and it came within 3 minutes of their first win there in 2016. The R10 was running 'unstressed'. Only Peugeot had a diesel and they didn't show up until 2007. In 2006 the Audi had a 90L fuel tank, same as the petrol cars They won by 4 laps and the talk about the competition? Well a GT1 Corvette finished 4th overall! I think the competition has gotten a lot tougher and more competent nowadays. Lets see how the race goes and how they do in the coming weeks with Le Mans looming.

The true purpose of every single Audi LMP1 has always been to win Le Mans.

[Victor_RO]

Confirmed by WEC on Twitter, Fittipaldi has been taken to hospital; conscious and alert throughout, but with both legs suspected to be broken.

https://twitter.com/FIAWEC/status/992427396627300353

[bobec]

Originally Posted by carbsmith

The fastest R10 was over three seconds behind the slowest Peugeot in qualifying in 2008 and 5.3s off pole. The TS050 holds the outright Le Mans track record. Pretty clear which one better represents the ultimate lap time potential under the regulations.

I believe pole laps times and fastest laps don't win the race. Just like the 2015 R18s (I believe ALL THREE of them) setting the fastest race laps ever does not mean they only finished 3rd and with two 919s at the first two steps of the podium.

The TS050 has proven it is very fast, but it has also proven that it is fragile and difficult to service. They obviously cut corners to get more pace, sacrificing on survivability.

You're probably right that the TS050 is far superior than the R10 ever was - the R10 was an open cockpit concept , which sacrifices speed and would be totally outdated even by 2009. There was no way the 908 wouldn't have the advantage when it came to aerodynamics.

But like it was already pointed out, the R10 did what it was supposed to - win Le Mans 3 out of 3 times.

[Mike E]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

Confirmed by WEC on Twitter, Fittipaldi has been taken to hospital; conscious and alert throughout, but with both legs suspected to be broken.

https://twitter.com/FIAWEC/status/992427396627300353

Poor guy. The car did stop very suddenly, which is never good.

[TF110]

Originally Posted by bobec

I believe pole laps times and fastest laps don't win the race. Just like the 2015 R18s (I believe ALL THREE of them) setting the fastest race laps ever does not mean they only finished 3rd and with two 919s at the first two steps of the podium.

The TS050 has proven it is very fast, but it has also proven that it is fragile and difficult to service. They obviously cut corners to get more pace, sacrificing on survivability.

You're probably right that the TS050 is far superior than the R10 ever was - the R10 was an open cockpit concept , which sacrifices speed and would be totally outdated even by 2009. There was no way the 908 wouldn't have the advantage when it came to aerodynamics.

But like it was already pointed out, the R10 did what it was supposed to - win Le Mans 3 out of 3 times.

It's a hybrid car, they're all going to be 'difficult' to service. Toyota uses/used their hybrid in conjunction with the entire package, so if something went wrong it was interconnected. Apparently they changed that for this year and worked over the winter for serviceability. None of the hybrid cars are simple to fix. The 2017 winning Porsche had near the same failure as the #8 Toyota but they didn't change the battery while Toyota did. There's lots of manufacturers who haven't won Le Mans, that doesn't mean their cars are any worse or better than a car that has won. Sometimes luck and unforeseen circumstances play a bigger part than reliability or speed.

Back on topic, the Ford GT is literally the fastest GT car at Spa with that qualifying lap of 2:12.4. The Toyota's weren't as fast as last year but that may have been because the red flag or different conditions?

[bobec]

Originally Posted by Damian Baldi

It looks like the car bottom touch the ground and it change the direction directly to the fences.

Looking at footage of the crash from behind, the car did bottom out but it didn't seem like anything dramatic (probably all cars bottom out there). Also the car seemed to behave normally for a few seconds after bottoming.

However, looking from the front, the already mentioned flickering of the headlights timewise corresponds with the car losing control.

Anyway, awful crash, and definitely looked weird, like something malfunctioned on the car.