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  • Schumacher 'seriously' injured in skiing accident
  • hora
    Free Member

    DD heres one that sticks in my mind. Dodged alot of death in the early years off F1 to die 3months later

    http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Hawthorn

    Jackie Stewart beats them all.

    njee20
    Free Member

    It is a terrible irony that he excelled at one of the most dangeros sports there is and suffers such an injury whilst skiing. Thoughts and prayers with Schumacher and his family.

    Is F1 one of the most dangerous sports there is? I know it was, but the last 18 years or so (ie post Senna)?

    thegreatape
    Free Member

    From what I gathered he is a very nice but more than anything, ridiculously generous and kind chap.

    I recall reading a first hand account of this on here. Someone ended up attending an end of season curry or something with the UK based members of one of the teams. Schumacher unexpectedly turned up, joined then for the meal and then quietly settled the substantial bill. Something like that anyway.

    clubber
    Free Member

    Njee makes a fair point. I guess the trouble is that there isn’t a very big sample – 20ish drivers, 20ish races a year is only 400 events per season. Even if we take the 20ish years since Senna that’s only 8000. I expect that there are sports offering higher than 8000:1 odds of dying.

    Anyway, back on topic, I hope he recovers. Sports and sporting infractions are pretty petty against real world life and death things.

    Good write up from DC :

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/michael-schumacher/10543292/I-only-hope-Michael-Schumacher-pulls-through-so-that-he-can-see-all-the-nice-things-people-are-saying-about-him.html

    pondo
    Free Member

    Benetton argued that although traction control (remember it was a MASSIVE advantage has shown) was found on their car- it was disabled/they couldnt afford to remove it. They were let off!

    IIRC it was never proven that they used it – not sure it counts as a let-off if no-one can say you did anything wrong.

    teamhurtmore
    Free Member

    Jambalaya, did French TV give any more details of where this happened. If off piste, I guess that is the stuff that is on the RHS of maudit and comes down to the road between mottaret and Meribel?

    Must have been some impact to shatter a ski helmet in two? Scary thoughts. Big debate round lunchtime table yesterday with three families where all but the 3 dads wear helmets!!!! Schu’s plight plus the death of the 16year old twin in Lech pre Christmas makes you count your blessings.

    pondo
    Free Member

    He was good but also lucky. Had Ayrton lived he would have taken the next two championships (at least) and if Mika hadn’t had his massive crash his career, while brilliant, would probably have led to more championships.

    That’s outrageously speculative.

    Add to that he had a team mate who wasn’t allowed to race him and had to pull up to let him pass on occasion…

    Prost, I think, was the only team mate on a par with Senna, and Senna was not above vetoing his team mate if he had the power to do so. When he went to Lotus, he wouldn’t let them sign Derek Warwick, I think it was.

    Also saying Ayrton performed similar ramming incidents is a joke. Sure Ayrton was a spoilt brat but he was usually fair and as we all know the situation at Suzuka was hardly that

    I don’t know of another driver who would nerf an opponent off at 140+. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a bigger fan of Senna than I am of Schumi, but I think it’s unfair to suggest that Schumacher is the only driver who went over the edge of what’s acceptable.

    ourmaninthenorth
    Full Member

    Is F1 one of the most dangerous sports there is? I know it was, but the last 18 years or so (ie post Senna)?

    I spent time at a conference with Mark Gallagher (Cosworth, Red Bull, Jordan) a few years ago. As the only Brits there, we stuck together for a while. He was fascinating on the conscious decision post-Senna’s death that F1 would never lose a driver racing. There had been a time when the chances of death ran at 25% – so if you made it through season 3, you retired.

    But that’s going OT. Much like everyone else, I hope MS pulls through this for himself and his family.

    jambalaya
    Free Member

    @teamhurtmore – they had video of the crash site and the helicopter leaving – it looked like a flattish/shallow area between the pistes and reasonably low down, ie definitely not up top in the couloirs. The film was credited as BFM which is a cable news company, they might have posted it online. It’s 10 years since I was in Meribel so couldnt place it exactly. Its my supposition he was going quick over a flattish bit to ensure he didn’t stop and has been very unlucky.

    cchris2lou
    Full Member

    I watch french news too and they said that speed was definetly a factor in the severity of the accident . There is not as much snow as usual and 20cm fell the night before hidding rocks .

    cchris2lou
    Full Member

    Just seen now that he has a 2nd op last night and he has improved a little bit but still critical .

    teamhurtmore
    Free Member

    There is a nice OP run in that area that is a gentle gradient (unless you get the line wrong and end up in the wooded cliffs as I did once,) and relatively easy skiing. Brings you out on the road. Needs the right conditions though and faces the wrong way!!! I doubt it was the couloirs – the couloir de la mort is forbidden these days I think?

    trout
    Free Member

    cut n pasted from planitF1

    Doctors at Grenoble University Hospital have confirmed that Michael Schumacher’s condition has improved slightly, but added that they “can’t say he is out of danger”.

    At a news conference which was held at 10am GMT on Tuesday, doctors confirmed that a second operation on the seven-time Drivers’ Champion took place overnight after a fresh scan showed “an improved situation” which provided them with an opportunity to operate again.

    Following the procedure, Schumacher’s condition showed a “slight improvement”.

    They added that the 44-year-old German’s condition is “more under control” than it was on Monday, but admitted that it is “still too early to say that he is out of danger”.

    “It is better than yesterday,” Grenoble Hospital Director General Jacqueline Hubert said at the press conference.

    “But all the family is very much aware that his state is still sensitive and anything can happen.”

    Earlier, the surgeon that performed the first operation, Stephan Chabardes, admitted that the next two days will be decisive in determining whether or not the F1 legend recovers from the accident.

    funkrodent
    Full Member

    Spent four days at the end of August biking in and around the three valleys. Certainly lots of rocky terrain and with only relatively light snow cover, it is easy to envisage how risky it would be ski-ing at speed even at low level (which I believe he was). Thank god he was wearing a helmet, otherwise he would have been toast. Lots of respect for him as a man and a driver. Favourite story was when he was apparently late for a flight and asked the taxi driver if he could drive..
    Here’s hoping he makes a full recovery and also a thought for all the other poor sods who get injured/killed on the slopes but don’t happen to be superstars..

    thepurist
    Full Member

    There’s been a post on Twitter saying he was going to help someone who’d fallen but went over a rock and then crashed into another. Speed definitely not a factor… but I have no idea of the quality of that source vs the French media.

    coffeeking
    Free Member

    Not that he’ll ever read it, or it’d make any odds but wishing him (as with any injured folk) a good recovery.

    JCL
    Free Member

    He was good but also lucky. Had Ayrton lived he would have taken the next two championships (at least) and if Mika hadn’t had his massive crash his career, while brilliant, would probably have led to more championships.

    That’s outrageously speculative.

    That 94 Williams was a good car but it was barely developed. When Senna spun closing down Schumacher in Brazil 94 they had both lapped Hill in third. By the end of the year Hill was fighting for the championship… Senna would have walked it. No disrespect to Hill. Paid peanuts by Williams (relatively) and probably the most genuine guy to race an F1 car in the modern era.

    Sure, the Hakkinen comment was more speculative but let’s not forget him out qualifying Senna in his first race for McLaren. I heard Dennis say on a number of occasions that the most impressive thing he saw in F1 was Hakkinen returning from that shunt. Who knows how much that effected him? He was bloody rapid.

    Add to that he had a team mate who wasn’t allowed to race him and had to pull up to let him pass on occasion…

    Prost, I think, was the only team mate on a par with Senna, and Senna was not above vetoing his team mate if he had the power to do so. When he went to Lotus, he wouldn’t let them sign Derek Warwick, I think it was.

    Yep you’re right about Warwick but that was pre season. Do you think Senna would have a team mate pull up to let him through in a race? Or even not let his teammate race him? I highly doubt it. The only dodgy thing that I believe happened with Senna was Honda was giving him more HP than Prost in qualifying.

    Also saying Ayrton performed similar ramming incidents is a joke. Sure Ayrton was a spoilt brat but he was usually fair and as we all know the situation at Suzuka was hardly that

    I don’t know of another driver who would nerf an opponent off at 140+. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a bigger fan of Senna than I am of Schumi, but I think it’s unfair to suggest that Schumacher is the only driver who went over the edge of what’s acceptable.

    Yeah but it was all about Balestre wasn’t it? Senna couldn’t take it anymore and I see his point to be honest. Still I’ve never seen any other driver, ever, park a car on the track to end others qualifying efforts. Check his mirrors when someone is overtaking and then turn pre apex to cause a collision.

    Again, he was good, but he had questionable sporting ethics. A little like that current German who isn’t very well liked either…

    hora
    Free Member

    The fractured skull? I think he lost ‘something’. Fear? Still a bloody good nay great driver. Never liked him until a TV helicopter zoomed in on him sobbing in the trees after a DNF. Just showed how much things got to him etc.

    buzz-lightyear
    Free Member

    From pics in the papers it looks like he was skiing the big couloir off Saulire. A good run that and not desperate. Rocks and holes are the big hazard on in-bound off-piste. Like biking and climbing, its never an entirely safe sport. A pal cracked his helmet in a high speed crash on an empty blue piste but was just stunned. Bad luck shue hope you pull through.

    jambalaya
    Free Member

    Better news today, French tv reporting he should not suffer any loss of mobility and they do not believe he has any brain injury. Fingers crossed.

    As an aside I hope they send the journalist who dressed up as a priest in order to sneak into his room, to prison or as a minimum thats he’s named and shamed and never works again.

Viewing 20 posts - 81 through 100 (of 100 total)

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