Sad news from Le Mans

RIP Simonsen 🙁

A very rare thing, these days, but always sad when it happens.

Just watched the footage of this, that was one hell of an impact. Very strange to spear off at that angle there.

Condolences to his team and family.

Have seen a clip of that crash – it didn’t look a severe crash. Driver was apparently speaking to the medics after the crash. Wonder what the full story is going to turn out to be.

Horrible situation for all involved though.

Milky – you and me been watching the same crash here?

The wall he hit is solid concrete, no give whatsoever and no tyre barrier either. Probably over 120mph+ at that point.

All credit to his family for telling the team to continue with their other entry despite the offer of withdrawing.

This one.

Eye very sad indeed.

But motor racing is by definition dangerous.

Best wishes to all his family and friends.

Very sad news RIP.

I may be wrong from the footage I’ve seen looked like not a huge incident he got on the curb a bit too much got oversteer he tried to correct it and the car snapped the other way could have happened to anyone. I’m surprised it was life ending incident though.

Frosty & Milky Did you see the car afterwards? Chassis was seriously bent, roof at an odd angle, that was a big impact
Condolences to his family, he was a great racer

RIP

Seen the pictures online, definitely a heavy impact to twist it that much.

The cameras don’t do justice to how fast that impact would be, the tarmac area is huge there.

Didn’t look a big impact because there was very little debris.

Usually the spectacular, drawn out accidents with bits flying everywhere are the ones the driver walks away from (like Kubica’s accident at Canada) as the deceleration is very gradually.

The short accidents with no debris are the most dangerous as these have a very high, sudden G loading and it is usually this which causes the fatalities.

Very odd looking accident – rumour is that there was a mechanical failure.

Sad news 🙁

fizzicist

Very odd looking accident – rumour is that there was a mechanical failure

Didn’t look at all odd to me. Looked like the rears just spun up on the blue painted run out zone of TR, and the resulting yaw caught the driver out. At >120mph, you only have 1 chance at getting in the perfect amount of steering correction, and get it wrong and the high energy situation makes a recovery almost impossible (remember also that for an heavily aero enhanced car (downforce) as the yaw builds the downforce reduces………..

R.I.P to a great racer ;-(

Having watched the vid and another on TF1 I think Aston should stop the other car. If one has failed there’s a possibility the other will fail in the same way especially as it’s a 24h

Having watched the vid and another on TF1 I think Aston should stop the other car. If one has failed there’s a possibility the other will fail in the same way especially as it’s a 24h

And you don’t think that Aston haven’t thought of this, or would you expect them to bow to your superior knowledge?

Awfully sad to see whenever it happens, RIP

Having watched the vid and another on TF1 I think Aston should stop the other car. If one has failed there’s a possibility the other will fail in the same way especially as it’s a 24h

Which one, they have 2 others running?

RIP

I expressed an opinion based on a possibility I have no doubt Aston have also thought of. I haven’t claimed superior knowledge and don’t expect Aston to take any notice of what I have to say. After years of competing in motorsport including winning a couple of British championships my experience tells me that component failures are often serial.

Have a nice day, fatmax.

Which one, they have 2 others running?

Double the reason to pull out. Both

Looks like a simple driver error to me 🙁

That’s what some say about Senna. Others blame mechanical failure, and that’s after years of investigation. It might just be driver error but an hour isn’t really enough time to be certain. In Jaguar’s position I’d play safe, but as above, I’m not Jaguar and don’t expect them to take any notice of me.

Sorry fella, should have re-worded or put a cheeky wink, didn’t mean to be arsey.

legend – that camera does point at driver error, the track was greasy in places from drizzle at the start. Shows how quickly it gets away from you at those speeds.

One of my friends at the track says the chassis was snapped on the driver’s side from the impact. He saw the crash looking from the outside of the track looking from the beginning of Tertre Rouge, says the noise of the impact was horrific.

I saw that live and then had to go out just after they said he was talking and on his way to hospital ..and now I read this 🙁

Im sure it was the first lap also and it did start with rain falling, it may just be as simple as a rear tyre on a wet bit of painted track

poor bloke RIP

That’s what some say about Senna. Others blame mechanical failure, and that’s after years of investigation. It might just be driver error but an hour isn’t really enough time to be certain. In Jaguar’s position I’d play safe, but as above, I’m not Jaguar and don’t expect them to take any notice of me.

I’d stop right there if I was you Edukator, if your as into racing as you say, being a 2x British champion you will know what’s wrong with your above post
Besides speculation does not help anything, a great racing driver is dead, his family have requested the team continue, the team and the drivers of their two other cars (not one as you stated, not Jaguar as you said) are happy, with more evidence of circumstances than you have, to continue
RIP

Tell me what’s wrong with my above post.

Speculating on what caused the accident is essential if you want to stop the same happening again. Something as simple as an overfilled fluid can cause a loss of control.

If Jaguar issues a press release such as the one released by KTM a few years back on the Dakar I’ll stop saying “Jaguar”.

Fabrizio Meoni’s fatal accident

Fabrizio Meoni was in a serious crash during the 11th stage of the Dakar Rally. Despite immediate medical attention, it was not possible to save Fabrizio Meoni’s life and he died of his injuries at the scene of the accident.

Due to this tragic incident the KTM management explicitly urges all KTM teams and factory riders to break off the Dakar Rally. KTM is however leaving it up to the individual drivers, teams and their sponsors to decide whether or not to continue the Rally.

Why would Jaguar be issuing a press release about a crashed Aston Martin?

What, this statement at

http://www.astonmartin.com/racing

where they explain:

“and at the specific request of his family, the team will continue to participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in tribute to Allan.”

Not good enough for you??

Thank you, convert.

I’d pull out whatever the family said. So no it wouldn’t be good enough for me if I were a driver or the team manager.

educator

Racing is fundamentally dangerous, and you’ve got to realise that it is pretty impossible to get rid of all danger – other than not do it.

😯 Eurosport saying this morning that the armco he hit was next to a tree and as such didn’t have as much room to deform and absorb the impact. 🙁

Speculating on what caused the accident is essential if you want to stop the same happening again.

No a proper investigation is essential, speculation, especially from some ‘random’ on an Internet mountain bike forum is of no benefit, and frankly a bit disrespectful to the family and teams wishes

Anyway race is over, did any of the other two Astons crash in similar circumstances?

I was only thinking two days ago how long it’s been since Jo Gartner was tragically killed on the Mullsanne in ’86. He was the last fatality until Saturday.

RIP.

Having watched the vid and another on TF1 I think Aston should stop the other car. If one has failed there’s a possibility the other will fail in the same way especially as it’s a 24h

Looking at the above video’s there was something going on infront which he saw last minute and was possibly trying to avoid? There was a red car slowed infront of them (Ferrari?) and a marshal waving a yellow flag on the right of the circuit.

Very sad state of affairs……
Side impacts of that magnitude rarely end well, if you hit the wall head on or backwards there is a much greater chance of survival as there is more of a deform-able crash structure. the HANS device stops the neck over extending and pulling out the brain stem.
In a side imact, as said, there is very little room for effective energy dissipation, the cars are as good as they can be (Driver positioned as close to the trans tunnel as possible, large composite side impact protection structure full of impact absorbing foam etc
But the body cant take a side impact of that loading without serious internal damage.
That would have been 120mph+ to a dead stop in milliseconds 😥

I was just up the track from there, it was so greasy with on and off drizzle, those painted sections look lethal. The whole atmosphere on track was muted after the announcement, especially at the end when a fellow Dane won. We’ve got so used to seeing them walk away its a real shock when one doesn’t.

Yes, in ’86 it was the same. A stunned sadness over the circuit.
I guess it’s a testament to all the improvements it’s been so long between tragic events.