Bad accident in Monaco Grand Prix Saturday Qualifying...

[Majarvis]

Taken from F1-Live.com

Briton Jenson Button was withdrawn from the Monaco Grand Prix here Sunday by his BAR-Honda team after he spent the night in hospital undergoing checks following a practice accident. Button, 23, crashed heavily in the Saturday morning practice and hit the barriers sideways opposite the entrance to the chicane after he clipped the barrier in the tunnel. After consultation with the FIA medical delegate professor Sid Watkins, Button's team have decided not to risk damaging his career by forcing him to race here Sunday, a decision the young Brit has accepted. "I blacked out for a while and the crash was quite frightening," said Button. "But if I'm not fit to drive, then I'm not good enough to drive. I want to race obviously but if the circumstances aren't right you're not going to but I will be 100 percent right for the next race in Canada. I would rather not be in the pits today, I would rather be racing." Professor Sid Watkins said Button was disappointed but accepted his advice not to race. Jenson had a concussion so it would have been unwise to expose him to another possible concussion," said the medical chief. "I told him it was safer and wiser to not to do it and he, very gentlemanly, accepted my advice." "Jenson is not going to race. He is up and having physio treatment and has said he can race but the team has taken the decision for him not to take part,” added BAR-Honda team principal David Richards. “It is a decision for the long term and I stand by that decision because after a trauma like that you never know what a second knock on the head might do. He wanted to prove something here but we lost the opportunity for the race by not qualifying and he has a long career ahead of him so it is pointless to squander that for one weekend in Monaco." Richards said there is "no doubt" about Button taking part in a scheduled test at the high-speed Monza circuit in Italy next week and the Briton is already undergoing hydrotherapy in Monaco. The team will not replace him for the race.

Video

The cars are well in excess of 290 km/h (180 mph) at that point of the track exiting the tunnel.

Little late I know...

 

[Matrixhasu77]

Geez, that looks like that hurt... and the car is destroyed too.

 

[vat_man]

Yeah - it took pretty well the entire hit on the right side of the car - it didn't slow down much before it hit, either.

I saw a couple of slow mos which didn't look that bad, but late yesterday finally saw the shunt at full speed, and that was scary - reminded me a lot of Wendlinger's accident back in '94 (that basically ended his career - he was never right after that).

It's a real testament to the cars - I hate the raised sides on the cockpits, but I have to admit, they work.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Didn't Wendlinger go into the second barrier forwards?

It would be interesting to know how the accident started. One thing I noticed from all the replays was that you could actually hear the impacts, and the thing just breaking up.

Not as eerie a sound as Mansell's Donington Park Touring Car shunt, but bad nonetheless.

 

[vat_man]

Originally posted by GilesGuthrie
Didn't Wendlinger go into the second barrier forwards?

It would be interesting to know how the accident started. One thing I noticed from all the replays was that you could actually hear the impacts, and the thing just breaking up.

Not as eerie a sound as Mansell's Donington Park Touring Car shunt, but bad nonetheless.

Don't know - never saw Wendlinger's crash. I was under the impression it was a huge side impact - that's quite a mysterious one. There was never any footage, that I recall.

 

[Majarvis]

Well, Button clipped the barrier exiting the tunnel, sending the car into a spin. I was watching Speed News, and they said that he sustained a "spike" in the area of 89 G's in the impact, but averaged 29 G's in the entire impact, which knocked him unconscious.

 

[halfracedrift]

89G?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE
ok.. lets say.... the average F1 driver weighs..what.... 60 kg....
At that point... 89X60 = 5340... so his body was undergoing AT LEAST 5340 kilograms of.. LATERAL G
Its enough to kill a person.. he's lucky to survive!
thats like slamming two, three cars on your body.. SIDEWAYS

 

[Majarvis]

Yeah I know, but you have to remember it was a "spike" as they call it of 89 G's, not sure what that means but I know that isn't what he sustained throughout the whole crash, they said he officially sustained 29 G's.

 

[vat_man]

Impact 'spikes' of up to 100g are fairly common in oval racing. He was indeed lucky to survive. As I mentioned above, the padding around the cockpit, as much as I detest it for asthetic reasons, does actually work.

 

[Majarvis]

Yup, they sure do. I would like to see the onboard of that lap to see what exactly happened.

 

[vat_man]

So would I - it's fairly uncommon for drivers to drop the ball there (although Frentzen a few years back in the Jordan comes to mind, and it got him sacked). There was some initial talk of car failure, but the topic seems to have gone pretty quiet.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Originally posted by vat_man
So would I - it's fairly uncommon for drivers to drop the ball there (although Frentzen a few years back in the Jordan comes to mind, and it got him sacked).

Off the top of my head, I can think of Wendlinger, Hill, Wurz, Frentzen, Sato and now Button all having shunts there. I think it's a combination of the fact that that's the fastest part of the track, into the heaviest braking zone, plus there's the dark-into-the-light thing.

 

[vat_man]

Not to mention Patrese's monumental on Modena's oil years ago!

On reflection, there has been a few, hey?

 

[Majarvis]

You would think if it's such a problem, they'd just remove that chicane and go straight through like in the old days. I suppose then it would be even more dangerous seeing as they would be well over 300 km/h going past there without a chicane.

 

[Pupik]

Originally posted by Majarvis
You would think if it's such a problem, they'd just remove that chicane and go straight through like in the old days. I suppose then it would be even more dangerous seeing as they would be well over 300 km/h going past there without a chicane.

Well, they've had a chicane there since the circuit "opened". The road leading out of the tunnel eventually goes uphill, and the other road goes downhill (leading to Tabac, and around to harbour). The chicane has at least been there since the 1930's, there's a pic from the 1936 event showing Rosemeyer looping it there!

It used to be a daunting 5-gear flick, in 1986, it was replaced by the much safer (if not as exciting) hard-left-then-almost-as-hard-right. So the braking forces have increased since then, but it is much safer. (Lorenzo Bandini did not survive an accident at the old chicane in 1967.)

Monaco is dangerous, no two ways about it.

 

[Majarvis]

Yeah, true.

 

[CRXin18]

had to hurt