Eau Rouge/Radillon

[devilmaster]

So there may be changes coming to the famous complex due to the latest crashes over the past three years.

Today, 6 Wseries drivers all lost it on a cold, probably damp track and had a pileup that was reminiscent of the Spa start crash years ago or Champcars at Surfers.

That is on top of Jack Aitken's scary crash at the 24 hours of spa earlier that still has him sidelined, and of course Antoine Hubert's fatal accident 2 years ago.

Ya know, sometimes reading twitter all those young punks don't realize we've been doing these online debate/trolling/flaming sessions for decades... :rofl::laugh: and get off my lawn!

push the walls back, reinstall gravel (ugh) and even safer barriers to (somehow) stop throwing cars back into the racing line are some of the tweets I saw.

Obviously its now a flat out/pucker moment in a car and that's adding to the danger and subsequent crashes.

Hopefully they don't go back to the 1994 neutering of the corner after Ayrton's death.

Thoughts?

[Elmo T]

What's odd is I seem to recall a few years back (who knows anymore maybe it was like 10 years) - but hearing all the drivers saying "meh" to Eau Rouge and Radillon Actually :rolleyes:;) because they were all able to take it flat.

Curious if it is suddenly more dangerous due to a change in the cars OR higher speeds have created a smaller margin of error.

[SteveH]

lLiLMy6z5Ik

[devilmaster]

lLiLMy6z5Ik

I'm having a fun twitter exchange with someone about this. He's adamant that the tyre barrier and location of the wall was the cause of the accident.

[edit] ok, not fun anymore. lol cause now he's saying it would have been less crashy if the wall was moved.

[devilmaster]

I think you hit the nail on the head SteveH.

Its a flatout corner now. But just get it right.

The difference between today and the past crashes is that today's cars, nobody went back onto the racing line and was hit by an oncoming car on the racing line.

This accident had the first 6 cars all spin at the exact same spot (right hander at eau rouge) and slid all into the same area.

The track wasn't safe. And that falls on series/track officials.

[pfc_m_drake]

lLiLMy6z5Ik
Super scary.

I don't have answer, I'm afraid. That section is one of the things that makes Spa. Change it and - well - obviously you fundamentally change one of the things that makes the track what it is.

I'm not the best person to ask because I'm a huge motorcycle guy, so my risk tolerance is much higher than the average person. I'd say leave it (it pales in comparison to the MotoGP guys doing 220mph in Qatar with nothing around them other than their riding suits to protect them in a crash).

Others likely don't share that viewpoint.

[devilmaster]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByK0MYpLLRM

This angle shows what I meant about the track not being ready. you can see the first 6 cars through eau rouge in this session all slide at the right hander.... I mean the first thing in my mind was there was oil on the track...

And safe to say the halo saves the 44 from a top down tire hit.

[SteveH]

Spa-Francorchamps unveils €80m redevelopment project (https://www.thestadiumbusiness.com/2020/10/12/spa-francorchamps-unveils-80m-redevelopment-project/)

This was announced last fall although I don’t know if any modifications will be made to where the accident occurred.

[SteveH]

Where Eau Rouge needs to be changed isn’t the corner itself (https://the-race.com/formula-1/where-eau-rouge-needs-to-be-changed-isnt-the-corner-itself/)

[opinionated ow]

There's some talk doing the rounds that there are some really bad bumps through Eau Rouge/Raddilon as a result of the recent, huge floods. That might be a part of the issue? Certainly the safety changes in recent years have lead to more cars bouncing back onto the circuit. I wonder if they could built a platform on the outside to extend the run off area because it's pretty much a sheer drop on the inside of the circuit there

[devilmaster]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMzAAasarco

Lando's qualifying shunt. F1 no allowo embeddo.

[WickerBill]

Where Eau Rouge needs to be changed isn’t the corner itself (https://the-race.com/formula-1/where-eau-rouge-needs-to-be-changed-isnt-the-corner-itself/)

This nails it, I think. It might reduce the pucker factor of a potential bad wreck, but it doesn't reduce the pucker factor of going flat-out and hoping your car sticks.