I8ABMR

can you say sub dural hematoma???? Its sad but at the speeds these guys are running I would expect it to be worse. My prayers are with him. It might be time to retire

Indio

iTrader: (1)

Safety advances? With all the money spent in F1 they don't even use tethers, this would have kept that spring attached to the car, Fernando Alonzo lost a wheel today, thankfully he was just leaving the pits and was not up to speed, this could have been tragic as well, a tether keeps the wheel with the car, the drivers are also too exposed.

gshb

F1 does use wheel tethers, since at least 1998. you can bet after this incident that the spring will be tethered as well.

edit: for clarification, the failure alonso had resulted from improperly securing the wheel to the wheel hub. since the tether runs from the chassis to the wheel hub, this is one of few ways the wheel could go flying off. thus, renault was penalized one race for the mistake made by the pit crew.

SLegacy99

I can. I recently studied hematomas. Nasty business.

LB Lex

I saw that accident as it happened. It could have been a ton worse had the spring hit the visor and broke through it, and of course when he was knocked out he could ran straight into a concrete barrier.

I'm glad at least he is doing better, however there is concern over his left eye.

I really like Massa, he used to take unnecessary risks when he was younger but now he is a much better driver and almost won the Driver's Championship last year. Also, he is a good team player (looking back at the Schumacher years) and is a hard worker (compared to Kimi).

I hope he has a full and complete recovery.

Mr Johnson

As has already been pointed out they use wheel tethers but that wouldn't have worked in Alonso's incident since they tether the hubs in case of a crash tearing the suspension off not a wheel nut coming loose.

As for advances, Massa is alive because of the advances in Helmet design instigated by the FIA. If you do a bit of research on F1 helmet design, starting here, you will see how amazing these helmets actually are. Don't ignore the crash tests required by the FIA that allowed the secondary crash with the tire wall to have been so survivable.

I somehow tend to doubt it as it seems to me the energy in the spring is incredible and the position of it is not quite what many would expect. This picture is a view from the rear of the car. The item marked #1 is the spring and you will see it is part of an assembly. It sits horizontal and takes load from both the left and right side.

Much as I hate to say it IMO this falls really hard in the "freak" accident category. It will be interesting to see if they can come up with anything reasonable but open wheel racing is always going to be dangerous.

As for recovery it looks very, very promising right now. Don't know about the eye (they say that the damage reports were incorrect) but otherwise they are thinking that he will be able to make a "full" recovery. Don't know if he will race but sounds like he will have one good eye and be able to walk and talk and enjoy his soon to be born child.

Best wishes Felipe!

I8ABMR

yup. slow insidious onset that can kill or leave you in a very debilitated state. If he comes out of this he needs to retire and focus on his family and life under 190mph