19 May 2009 - 12:00
Yellow peril
A safety car causing a crash during a race is one of those properly ironic things like, y'know, having 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife. Or a traffic jam when you're already late.
Actually, it's nothing like either of those. Because it's actually, properly ironic. We think. And it happened this weekend, at the WTCC race in Pau, France.
Take a look at the video, and prepare to wince:
Here's the analysis, Brian: a minor crash has caused the race to be yellow-flagged behind race leader Franz Engstler in his BMW. As he eases down the main straight, the safety car - a Chevrolet Cruze driven by Philippe Cholet and Jean-Pierre Colas - pulls out of the pit lane and straight into his path. Ouch.
A stewards' investigation after the race concluded that Engstler could have done nothing to avoid the crash, that the safety car was not given the signal to leave the pit lane and that it crossed into the middle of the track instead of using the acceleration lane. That's a sizeable blot on Messieurs Cholet and Colas' copybook, we fear.
And here's the really maybe-ironical bit: Engstler was forced to retire from the race, allowing Alain Menu to take the chequered flag. In... a Chevrolet Cruze. Honestly, it's like rain on your wedding day...
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He was Knoked the f....d out.
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the funny thing is, though the beamer is totaled, the Cruze looked completely fine
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You would expect more damage to the safety car, and you'd expect a better driver too
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The interesting thing to me is how everyone involved seemed to be pretty cool about it all. Can you imagine the consequences if this happened in F1, especially amid the current political turmoil? There would probably be a fight on the track, a fight in the pit lane (between team members or even some principals, i.e. Flavio B.), endless accusations, etc....
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i swear, it`s like he did it on purpose
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^ He doesn't appear to slow down, probably because it's a blind corner and he didn't see it until the last moment. He probably did brake just before the contact.
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retard! what an idiot
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The beamer driver did all he could..if he had turned a bit more to the left he would have ended up in the barrier anyway. to elnomis: That's the difference between a race car and a road car. A race car has very light, stiff yet fragile parts and has a rollcage to protect the driver. Road cars rely more on the exterior and frame to take the impact since it doesn't have a rollcage.
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Chevvy Cruz, that says it all! Could a car be anymore generic?
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Daniel, I'd say safety car - he veered in front of the drivers, crossing the white line in so doing, but he may have just got the green light a little too late and became blindly determined to get in front of the racers. Still, there must've been a better way of going about it than that.
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If I were the safety car driver, my face would be red hot from embarrassment for the rest of my life. But to be brutally honest, as Clarkson says, the accident wasn't entirely his fault. Yes they came out of the pit lane without expressed permission, yes they didn't speed up to the flow of 'traffic', and yes they pulled out of the accelerating lane essentially at the mout of a blind corner. But the race was being yellow flagged for ages before this and the driver was just going too fast.
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very ironic about the cruze winning
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@Zedd that would be so funny, it would be like a re-run of the Spa Francorchamps race where Coulthard took out Schumachers wheel (deliberately i might like to add) and Schuey went to fist him in the pits. Ahhh fun.
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WAT DID HE DO THAT FOR THE CRAZY FOOL! U WOULDNT SEE BERND MAYLANDER DOING THAT!!!
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This really made my day! Hopefully no-one got hurt, though...
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Obviously he should have accelerated in the lane out of the pits but that is a useless safety car! Why wasn't it a Porsche or Merc? It's obviously a case of marketing over common sense.
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to Minimal1ty: but i mean, if the race cars are so fragile, I would imagine the lateral Gs from the turns could maybe do the same to the wheel? i mean, that safety car was literally unharmed...
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Especially that bit about Alain winning in a Cruze because of this. 'And who would have thought? It figures...'
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elnomis, the Safety Car was a write-off and had to be craned away. Fatal tyre and suspension damage, see.
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The saflty car team must have been told the race leader was very close and they tried to pick him up there and then rather thatn wait another lap...
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Idiot safety car driver , why shouldn't he use the indicator light to go left!
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Mikeado commented on this article
19 May 2009
Lol wow, that's like being killed by a "Luck o' the Irish" billboard! What exactly happened? The SC proabably had to (or thought they had to) slow them down on that lap, but you can't just pull out in front of a full-speed race and expect everything to be fine. I want to see it from Engstler's view. Tbh he did well to get as far past the SC as he did. What an ironic win though!! Still, it won't be to expensive to replace a Chevrolet Cruze... it is Reasonably Priced, afterall.
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