The car may have very well already been in testing before the accident, however, I still feel that alot of this is a knee jerk reaction to the incident. Can the car always be safer absolutly. Take a look at the Earnhart inncident. perfect example of how race cars in general are safer then before. Does this mean that everytime there is a major accident they need to look at the most miniscule factors that contributed to the accident, IMHO no, becuase there is one factor that you cannot account for no matter what and that is the driver behind the wheel. There is always going to be something to make safer. I am not saying dont do anything and what happens happens but its racing Tony Kanaan said it best. We all know that at any race we have the potential for this to happen to anyone of us, its racing, its a deadly sport. It just so happens that today we lost a great competitor and friend when we didnt expect it. my 2 cents
The simply fact is, is that the high banked ovals are intended to encourage side by side close racing. The chances of interlocking tires in open wheel cars is and has always been high. Indianapolis is not a road course, it is an oval and it is the premere race for the "Indy" cars. It only stands to reason that they should and will race on other ovals along with road courses too. What they did with the bodies is an effort to reduce the chances of a car being launched into the air when the inevitable happens. F1 does not run any sort of oval, so the design for their cars is different. PS: Dale Earnhardt would have easily survived his then fatal crash if he had been wearing a Hans device and/or they had had the safer soft walls, both of which were mandated after Dale's crash.... Nit picking?
I think any justification for any driver to loose a life: that's racing, accidents happen, etc.; is misguided.
If I may quote The Gray lady Emphasis mine. For the tl;dr crowd - It was designed before Wheldon's crash to be safer and a better racer.
Gee minimark, can you say "complete overeaction?" Really? Did you see those words in my post... How about calming down and drinking a little less chocolate milk in the mornings... :crazy: I am saying you can impose other options to make the series safer instead of taking what has always been an open-wheeled car and making it not open wheeled anymore. They have essentially removed the roots of the series. Racing IS dangerous. So long as racing has been here, it has been so. F1 has made amazing leaps in safety. Actually ALL of the series have, but suddenly the "safety" aspect has taken and made the cars into, well, I don't know what, but I can safely say watching them is not as fun as it used to be. NASCAR has gotten to the point where they are losing attendance because there is nothing stock about the stock cars anymore and there is no brand recognition. They are purpose built race cars that are boxy and unattractive. F1 has made so many rule changes they resemble the IRS as an organization and an Italian boxer who loses most of his fights in styling. Now Indy cars look like they got rear ended by a fendered car. There are more effective ways to make cars safer than to make them ridiculous looking. When you get to the point where your cars no longer resemble something that people want to watch because they have gotten really ugly, it means the demise of the series and it is no longer relevant. ALMS still resembles the IMSA cars of old, just more modern. They use alternative fuels and are amazingly safe. Plus they are still beautiful machines. NONE of the other series mentioned above can claim that. When it comes down to it, the responsibility for safety lays with the drivers. If they cannot control themselves, they should be out. Period. If you mandate every safety measure known to man, and a driver is doing his best to put someone into a wall, then there will always be injuries and death. Racing used to be a gentlemen's sport. But egos and @ssholes have taken over and they use their balls instead of their brains and end up hurt or worse. How about we wrap all the cars in rubber foam, make the engines 5HP Briggs and Strattons, use greased tires and make the top speeds no higher than 5 MPH, and the drivers have to wear Nomex inflatable sumo suits? Then you would have a safe series... :idea: