Sophia Floersch Survives Horror Macau Accident

[RichardHessels]

Latest news! Sophia is allowed to leave the hospital in 1 or 2 weeks.

 

[budlix]

Here is photo sequence (bellow in the article) right before the impact.
Now we can discuss role of that curb "involved"...
https://petapixel.com/2018/11/19/racecar-goes-airborne-and-slams-into-photographers-box/

 

[Damage Inc]

Really glad to hear she's got through surgery, hopefully she and everyone else injured will make full recoveries. That sausage kerb though, WTF is it doing there, how much exactly can you gain at that corner? I mean it's not like there's acres of tarmac run off to the right is there, it's a sodding gert great armco barrier.

 

[Tomi]

That sausage kerb though, WTF is it doing there

Although we never know what would have happened without sausage kerb, but in this case it was propably one of the lucky reason why Sophia and Sho survived with relatively minor injuries.

 

[alexSchmurtz]

As someone pointed out earlier in this thread, the sausage curb is probably there to make sure cars stay away from the right wall, especially when going two wide into that corner. Cars will more likely give a bit more room to each other. If a car hits the right wall there, it will probably be sent across the track or block the corner, which could get nasty too...
They already said they will carefully monitor what happened in this crash, and learn from it. I don't think it is as simple as removing this curb...

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

Here is photo sequence (bellow in the article) right before the impact.
Now we can discuss role of that curb "involved"...
https://petapixel.com/2018/11/19/racecar-goes-airborne-and-slams-into-photographers-box/

very interesting link. the yellow car was lucky as hell she got as airborne as she was, two feet lower and this chap would now be one head shorter. pretty good advert for the halo missing with these cars, pure luck she did not hit his head at 250 km/h sideways ...
amazing, too, how the car withstood the impact, after all we now know that photobooth is made of armco in the lower section, i thought it was just a tent.

 

[rubaru]

Video at top of article no longer working. Was hoping to show a friend.

 

[dud]

I don't think you are supposed to hit the brakes on yellow flags, no?

Just getting off the gas should be the proper reaction. I guess it could differ for different series.

 

[Damage Inc]

Although we never know what would have happened without sausage kerb, but in this case it was propably one of the lucky reason why Sophia and Sho survived with relatively minor injuries.

hmmm good call, without it she would have smashed hard into the other car and then both would have hit the armco.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

hmmm good call, without it she would have smashed hard into the other car and then both would have hit the armco.

Which might have left Sophia in a better position, because her car would have already lost a lot of energy ( to the other car ) before impacting anything stationary. Side impacts are something cars are built to handle, too. Didn't happen, so we'll never know, anyway.

So there was a fence, but not high enough or strong enough - I think Sophia's car landed on top of it after smacking the photographer's box, or clipped the top on the way to the box which just bent the fence rather than doing much retardation and then flopped back on it. That box has to go somewhere else - photographers have long lenses, you can just move it up and back without hurting them too much... certainly hurting them less than being hit by a flying car.

1-2 weeks sounds very promising indeed, very glad she's looking at a quick recovery.

 

[Will Mazeo]

Which might have left Sophia in a better position, because her car would have already lost a lot of energy ( to the other car ) before impacting anything stationary. Side impacts are something cars are built to handle, too. Didn't happen, so we'll never know, anyway.

Was going to be a side by side impact + the barrier, so best possible situation actually because that's the part of the cars with more protection.
Some people that call themselves especiallists are basically saying it was better for her to dodge everything made to handle crashes and hit something that was not made fo rit. What the heck!

 

[Tomi]

Was going to be a side by side impact + the barrier, so best possible situation actually because that's the part of the cars with more protection.
Some people that call themselves especiallists are basically saying it was better for her to dodge everything made to handle crashes and hit something that was not made fo rit. What the heck!

Well, at least Sophie's team boss can call himself some kind of a specialist in this matter. He said everybody was damn lucky that it went that way. And that it would have been much worse for drivers if they have crashed first each other and then tyre barrier.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

It was at least a good thing she hit the temporary photographer's hide & not a very solid wall like I thought she did. Armco at least bends to absorb impact ( poor Alan Simonsen died because the armco was up against a tree & didn't flex so the deceleration happened much quicker ) unlike your average building hence why circuits are lined with it.

Hitting another car would split the energy of the collision, not send both cars into the barrier at Sophia's speed. The question then is if a F3 tub can decelerate a complete car in a high speed side impact before it crushes the driver cell, and that *is* something that should be a continual safety issue to work on, not brushed aside as a statistical outlier. The sausage didn't help much here but openwheelers are habitually launched off each other anyway, so I'd rather they concetrated on better fencing. Chances of this happening again are probably freakishly low, thankfully.

 

[Damage Inc]

Well, at least Sophie's team boss can call himself some kind of a specialist in this matter. He said everybody was damn lucky that it went that way. And that it would have been much worse for drivers if they have crashed first each other and then tyre barrier.

yup personally I respect the opinion of that sort of chap rather than other "especiallists" (oh the irony).

 

[Will Mazeo]

I think you both didn't get the point.... they are saying all that because she survived