[futurism]

in qualifying, a chunk of metal has flown off I think barricellos car, hit felipe in the head at a fast part of the track, knocked him out and hes gone into the wall

no one seems to know if hes ok at this point

im reminded of the driver that was killed when he hit a marshall carrying a fire extinguisher

update: bbc commentary came back, 10 were without it for 20 minutes or so, they seem to think hes ok and going off in the helicopter as a precaution

[dkabab]

more like the young guy henry surtees, who died last week when another drivers wheel hit him in the head and he crashed.
hope hes ok

https://aussieexotics.com/forum/events-and-racing/rip-henry-surtees-t4635.0.html

[dkabab]

 

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2009/07/the-latest-from-the-track-on-massa/

The latest from the track on Massa

Felipe Massa has been operated on this evening and is now in an induced coma in the AEK Hospital in Budapest.

An inaccurate report from AP this evening suggested that his condition was life threatening but this is not the case. The operation was successful and he is likely to be woken tomorrow.

Medical estimates of how long he will be out of action vary from two months, to longer. It has been suggested by one doctor here that he may miss the rest of the season. More will be known when the medically induced coma ends and the medics can assess the amount of bruising to the front of the brain.

The 28 year old was hit in the head by a spring which had fallen from the rear suspension of Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn car. He was on a lap heading back to the pits and was four seconds behind Barrichello on the road, when the spring became detached. It bounced down the road for four seconds and hit Massa in the head. He was briefly knocked unconscious and his feet went onto the brake and throttle simultaneously.

The data says that he applied 60bar of pressure to the brake, which is the equivalent of laying his foot on it gently, while the throttle was effectively jammed on.

Ross Brawn tonight explained that the spring was from the third damper and is made of steel and weighs around a kilogramme.

“The damper is still attached but the cap had come off and the spring escaped,” said Brawn. “I don’t know the full details but it was a freak accident.”

Brawn replaced the spring on Jenson Button’s car just in case, but Brawn said that this did not affect the balance of the car for Button’s final qualifying run.

He said that he had never experienced a spring detaching itself in all his years in F1 engineering. He added that he thought that the work done on making helmets safer had been ‘essential’ in this situation.
 

[Ferrari Fissatore]

what a freak occurrence!

Sickening footage to watch.... reminded me of Senna actually....   


But, will make for interesting times in F1

[dkabab]

ouch... that is some sickening footage. it clearly knocked him unconcious straight away and he was just a passenger.
hes lucky if he hasnt broken his wrists also

[futurism]

I think he lost conciousness slowly actually
if you watch you can see him changing down...first fast then a bit slower, like he was nodding off
but he didnt have the presence of mind to turn the wheel at all

when I first saw it I was really confused, like the commentators, I couldnt work out how the throttle could jam on and the steering rack lock
but the more I looked at it, he didnt seem to me trying to turn the wheel, I know if I was heading for the wall at that speed, Id just about rip the wheel off the car

[dkabab]

reason i said i thought he was knocked out was due to
a) not turning
b) not taking his hands off the wheel on impact - lesson 1 in crashing and open wheeler

[Doctor]

This popped up on the net not long after the accident...

[NSX]

This popped up on the net not long after the accident...

Holy F#&*

[Steve.]