Ayrton Senna

guitarfishbay

Hmm that Canadian GP thing looks like an actual accident rather than a safety failure. I seem to remember safety changes to wheel/suspension after the wheel death though.

holnrew

There was that lad who got decapitated by a wheel a few years back, wasn't a big series, but he was somebody's son.

sinbaadi

Henry Surtees, son of champion on 2 wheels and 4 Sir John Surtees, died at Brands Hatch when a wheel bounced to just the wrong height and struck his helmet.  Not sure he was decapitated though.

It's the unavoidable danger of open cockpit racing.   You can make the crash structure 100% safe, but if something strikes the driver's helmet, then the odds are against you.  Felipe Massa could quite easily have been killed in Hungary.

Adrian Newey criticised the new lower nose regulations because rather than the car going up over and into the air in the event of a collision (as can happen, see Webber at Valencia) you are at much great risk of the car going underneath the one it strikes, which is clearly putting the driver's head at greater risk.  Even with them sat so much lower and with quite high side panels now, it doesn't bear thinking about.

DiscoStu

I also remember watching Senna's accident live on tv. Horrible.

Rush is a good film too, but Senna is a great film. I'll be recording that tonight.

Here's Senna's cars. Interesting the evolution of roll bar and cockpit position.

http://cdn05.motorsportretro.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/senna-cars.jpg