Zhou incident

[PVDA]

A heart well done from the colonies to the marshals involved in extricating Zhou from his parallel parked car at Silverstone yesterday.

If I was a betting man it would be even money that the FIA will mandate catch fencing on top of the actual Armco and not behind it.

[GORDON STREETER]

I would think it was a "little" bit scary seeing this coming towards you !

[Woolley]

Originally Posted by PVDA

If I was a betting man it would be even money that the FIA will mandate catch fencing on top of the actual Armco and not behind it.

Thus making things more difficult and potentially more dangerous for the marshals. But then since at FIA meetings they don't let you trackside without permission that will only be the case for the 97% of meetings that aren't run under their auspices.

[bludvl_x19]

Also making an accident that takes out armco more of a time drain, because the catch fencing is now damaged as well.

If I was a betting man, I'd say that catch fencing would be moved back so there's room for a car to land on the ground, and not be wedged in a narrow corridor.

[TWRv12]

Originally Posted by bludvl_x19

Also making an accident that takes out armco more of a time drain, because the catch fencing is now damaged as well.

If I was a betting man, I'd say that catch fencing would be moved back so there's room for a car to land on the ground, and not be wedged in a narrow corridor.

Much as I hate 100% catch fencing, you cannot have the car depart the circuit. Too many bad things happen.


The is also the related problem of completely unprotected marshalling points.


Would a secondary unattached tyre barrier or such like in those type of run offs, slow it down a bit more before it hits the main barrier.


The recent Zandvoort crash of the Formula Regional Championship is sort of related , as the gravel trap and barrier didn't stop it.

[GreenMachine]

Bridge the gap with horizontal catchfencing, designed to hold the car as it drops down, not stressed for high energy impacts?

This would be cheaper/easier to install than the vertical stuff, possibly/preferably using the existing hard points in the catch fencing and the tyre wall. That wouldn't do much for safe movement of marshals, but the only alternative for that is to widen the gap by moving either/both the tyre wall and catchfence.

[PVDA]

Originally Posted by bludvl_x19

Also making an accident that takes out armco more of a time drain, because the catch fencing is now damaged as well.

Albert Park and other circuits seem to go ok with concrete walls topped with the catch fence so perhaps get rid of Armco railing if that is a concern ??

[Woolley]

That's best available for a temporary circuit. Makes it largely impossible for marshals to do their job properly, but then FIA are quite happy with interfering with marshals doing their job (and then Sainz complains they're slow when they do it the way FIA want it).

For a permanent circuit with lots of non-FIA stuff, it wouldn't work most of the time. Which in response to one unusual incident is over the top.

[Greem]

Hello folks, somehow I missed this thread completely.

Yep, (some of you know this already) that was my post and team. There was a lot going on and I found myself at the back of Zhou's car, holding it up against the fence so the FIA and local extrication teams could get the driver out. 15 minutes attached to a red hot tyre over the rear end of a modern F1 PU wasn't in my diary that day! We were all cogs in a big machine that ran brilliantly - in our briefing on Friday I said something to the effect of "we're all experienced and well trained so let's use that if anything happens", and they did.

In terms of circuit changes... I could see a couple of rows of TecPro spaced off of the Armco there, but that's an additional risk itself in terms of submarining.

I'm sure the powers that be will be thinking about it in terms of the bigger picture.