Sophia Floersch Survives Horror Macau Accident

[manu68]

All racing form are very dangerous, and this is a part of the interest for all of us.
It applies to car racing but to ski dowhill, rally, .....
Their is a probably more of injuries or death with ski downhill / freestyle as with car racing nowodays, just because we have all to admit that tremendous efforts have been made in car racing for security in the last decade.

Such accident should not happen, and I am pretty sure it will not happen again in macau.
Lessons will be take, and this is great.

We all don't like the new formula one design.
But it is the same logic. Security first. We don't like the hub, but it avois a collision with a wheel or a big object.
I am pretty sure that one day the F1 will be closed (do you remeber what happen to felipe Massa ?)
Same as no open prototype in le mans anymore.

Very happy to read that this young beautiful pilot (lady) will probably recover pretty quickly.
I really hope so for her.

 

[Metla]

deal with it.

People are dealing with it, With discussion, the input of ideas and opinion, raising questions and offering different,sometimes opposing points of view.

So, "deal with it" is a completely meaningless statement, unless the intent is to simple dismiss a level of conversation that someone may lack the capacity to...uh...deal with.

Sure, Travelling at speed has an inherent risk of injury or death, That doesn't mean any conversation should stop at that point. It means it should start if its not already underway. You can still put intelligent thought into reducing the opportunity for a poor outcome, and incorporate suitable actions for when events go wrong without ruining the concept of Motorsports.

Trying to shut down conversation by stating "deal with it" is pretty stupid.

 

[formidable]

How was this even possible?

 

[Damage Inc]

I think you meant cojones

kahuna noun
ka·hu·na | \kə-ˈhü-nə \
Definition of kahuna
1 : a preeminent person or thing
2 : a Hawaiian shaman

Aye, I did indeed! the dangers of trying to avoid profanity filters eh?!

 

[Damage Inc]

What always gets me, every time, is the massive amount of speed these things have. And when it goes uncontrolled I dont think any amount of protection will help.

Indeed, I don't think we truly appreciate just how much kinetic energy is involved as the tyres do their jobs so well. As soon as the tyres stop doing that job for whatever reasons it's mind boggling and scary as hell.

 

[Lesley Buurlage]

Obviously is not cool, but if you're going at 300km/h doing dangerous manouvers don't expect to be completely safe it doesn't matter how many security measures they take. The human body is not suposed to go at that speed. He is right, racing is dangerous deal with it.

that's true, but that doesn't counter my point that people getting hurt isn't cool and that we need as many safety measures as possible. i love seeing drivers race wheel to wheel at 300+, but if they make contact i would rather see them climb out than being carried away on a stretcher or in a bodybag. and if someone likes to see the latter than your mind is f'ed up and you need help

 

[Andy_J]

These ugly tracks in countries that don't have the culture or the history in Motorsport racing should be banned and destroyed

It goes to show some people (you are one of them) don't know much about motorsport. Macau has been a motorsport hub in the area for as long as I can remember and I'm old. Motorcycle racing there is one of big highlights and yes they die and get badly hurt there too. You will be calling for a ban to the TT races next.

 

[Boby Kim]

As long as there is racing, there will be accidents. There is no way to offer protection against all possible situations that could cause heavy accidents. We can only adapt on situations after they happened.

 

[Bruno Iwanczuk]

People are dealing with it, With discussion, the input of ideas and opinion, raising questions and offering different,sometimes opposing points of view.

So, "deal with it" is a completely meaningless statement, unless the intent is to simple dismiss a level of conversation that someone may lack the capacity to...uh...deal with.

Sure, Travelling at speed has an inherent risk of injury or death, That doesn't mean any conversation should stop at that point. It means it should start if its not already underway. You can still put intelligent thought into reducing the opportunity for a poor outcome, and incorporate suitable actions for when events go wrong without ruining the concept of Motorsports.

Trying to shut down conversation by stating "deal with it" is pretty stupid.

What i wanted to say is that the problem is not the track. The problem is racing. Maybe some safety measures will reduce accidents but people will always die in this sport it doesn't matter the track layout. Thats what i mean with "deal with it". My english is bad i hope you understand.

 

[F1Aussie]

When are we going to admit that Macau just ain't a circuit that should be raced? Every year massive pile ups and horror crashes happen. Do we really need a fatal one to understand not to go there anymore?

There have been a number of fatal accidents, in the motorbike races and in fact there was one last year

 

[F1Aussie]

IOM is by far the most dangerous race in the world.

Edit. Please name a current motor race / circuit that is more hazardous than IOM if you disagree.

Isle of man tt

 

[JonnyCombat]

Good god that’s one hell of a crash. Not often you see a car turn into a ballistic missile.

It’s a testament to how well made race cars are nowadays.

I’m just glad she’s okay.

 

[Metla]

What i wanted to say is that the problem is not the track. The problem is racing. Maybe some safety measures will reduce accidents but people will always die in this sport it doesn't matter the track layout. Thats what i mean with "deal with it". My english is bad i hope you understand.

I do, and My post wasn't specifically directed at you, you were just the most recent that mentioned the deal with it comment so I quoted it.

 

[Metla]

Good god that’s one hell of a crash. Not often you see a car turn into a ballistic missile.

It’s a testament to how well made race cars are nowadays.

I’m just glad she’s okay.

I think the fact that the structure she impacted with took much of the force also contributed to saving her life.

Very lucky lady, Its hard to conceive of going that fast, stopping so quickly, and not being dead.

 

[The Flying Hun]

I agree that this is a highly dangerous track. However, it's my favorite track in Raceroom... I wonder how real racing drivers feel about Macau? Anybody knows?

I have almost a collection of pro drivers now revealing that they like to drive there very much, due to its spectacular nature. Risk isn part of the business. Pros know and accept that, they might be willing to take the risk, but they ain't no foolish.

What always gets me, every time, is the massive amount of speed these things have. And when it goes uncontrolled I dont think any amount of protection will help.

Obviously the amount of protection modern monoframe cockpits provide, helps a lot. Twenty years ago or so, Sophia would be dead and her remains collected from all over the place.

Macau should be a touring car/GT only event. If there needs to be some kind of open wheel racing it shouldn't be done by young asprirants. Maybe this could be an opportunity for Formula E instead.

You do not jump into F2 or F1 just immediately, but you must undergo training seasons in lower formula classes before, else you get no license. If you do not allow young talents to do these, you will run thin on licensed drivers in higher classes.

Many of you seem to overlook anyway that Sophia maybe did not fail at all. The car in front of her, the one that she apparently has chased on that long straigth, seems to have braked unusually early, and due to her being in chase mode and at close distance, she had no time to react. Such things can happen, they are accidents that not even best experienced long time pros can always avoid. Brown stuff happens, and yesterday it involved a truckload of that matter.

If a driver does not accept that risk, he should go looking for another job. Sorry, but accidents will happen, always, no matter what you do with the tracks. Considering the past 20-25 years, it is stunning how much the lethality of motor sports has been reduced. Track safeties, car features, regulations, it all came together to acchieve that.

I agree however that in such tight places with walls left and right, doing open wheeler events maybe is not the best of ideas. But does anyone think that closed wheel boxes always prevent horror crashes? They don't. Have a car with significant downforce hopping over an uneven thing on the track like a curb, and downforce immediately turns into upforce and the chassis bottom turns into a wing generating uplift, and the car flies.

 

[The Flying Hun]

I think the fact that the structure she impacted with took much of the force also contributed to saving her life.

Indeed, it seems to have been a relatively soft tower formed of bars, with some ight coverings only. If it would have been a solid house wall made of thick bricks or concrete, I think she would have had no chance, no matter how solid the monoframe cockpit was constructed. At the end of that straight, cars have speeds of 270-300 km/h, depending on car class and model, and she was in loss of her brakes. Friction since the incident before may have already slowed her down (her car was already going backwards), but she probably still had far more than 200 km/h when impacting. Solid surface: no chance. She impacted with the rear, the car flipped and the nose pointed to the sky: she smacked into the wall with her head, the - open - upside of the car, I think not even the overroll bar would have saved her: its an open cockpit, her head fully exposed to the wall.

Not many accident victims have these Boing 747-loads of luck. Its unbelievable.

 

[mantasisg]

They are designed to absorb part of the impact energy by bending. Thats the whole idea. And the fact that the stand was shielded by those barriers proves that the possibility of such event happenign was considered. And thats a good thing.

 

[david1975]

Mod Edit: This is an English speaking forum please use it.

 

[Rastas]

menuda hostia que se metió....mujer tenia que ser.

Its a women that drives better than you......

 

[Andrew Harper]

They are designed to absorb part of the impact energy by bending. Thats the whole idea. And the fact that the stand was shielded by those barriers proves that the possibility of such event happenign was considered. And thats a good thing.

Are you talking about what the car crashed into? That looks like a camera pen for the photographers. The fact it bent the way it did is pure coincidence. I would imagine they never thought a car would reach it.

All drivers accept that racing is dangerous, it's part of the career choice. However I feel that it's important that after any sort of accident like this the organisers learn and they make changes to the circuit, etc. Whether that's higher barriers, getting rid of those stupid sausage kerbs doesn't matter. It's about realising there's a weakness and making sure they do their best to eliminate it the best they can.

We are all talking about the driver and thank heavens it looks like she'll make a good recovery. However we came very close to possibly losing marshals and assuming there were photographers in that pen we could have lost people there too. The accident happened so fast I'm amazed more people weren't hurt.

EDIT: Just reading about the injuries to the marshal and the photographers in the pen. Wishing them all the best for a speedy recovery.