He is fine. Shaken but not stirred... -g
The problem started due to the accident on turn 1 in the opening lap where the back markers collided and there were some debris from the cars involved and the stewards did not have the foresight to really clean the track (by ordering the marshals to SWEEP the track...
Why?
Because most components of these cars are made of carbon fiber, a very strong material (and very light) that when it is broken up in pieces, the left over are razor-sharp and many times, very small...
Therefore, in the subsequent laps, both Fernando Alonso and Ralf Schumacher picked up shreds of this material and punctured their respective rear tires.
Alonso while running 3rd, had a quite frightening half spin (in the middle of the straight just past the pit area, (actually close to turn one)... he must have been doing something like 330 kph (around 206 mph) he was going flat out until his rear right tire deflated... the made a sharp 90 degree turn and hit the wall with the front of the car.... luckily for Fernando, the car really did NOT turn sharply into the wall, but rather 'brushed' it and just kept on going straight as he arrived at turn one...
There was no wall at the end of the straight, just a run-off area and came to a stop with the car in shreds... he was shaken, but unhurt.
As for Ralf, he was not so lucky as Fernando since his 'deflation' point came in the middle of the flat-out section of the last long turn (what is part of one of the embanked turns of the regular "oval" circuit of Indianapolis.) This sent the Williams-BMW into a spin (which was good for Ralf since he scrubbed some speed. Unfortunately, the car missed by about 100 feet what they call the 'safety wall' (a wall that is designed to absorb a good portion of the impact by a wall that is similar in design to a 'double hull' in a modern oil tanker)
So he must have hit the concrete at something like.... 300 kmh (190 mph) or thereabouts luckily for him, he avoided serious injury by hitting it with the rear part of the car, rather than 'nose first'....
Apparently he did go unconscious (therefore, the mandatory hospital stay -I've been there and it is not fun... the nurses come and wake you up every 1/2 hour, so you do not go into a coma). They take all sorts of x-rays, scans etc... to make sure that there are no blood clogs or any other threat.
He must be sore like hell as well... sudden stop after traveling at 300 kph or so is no fun... ouch...
But other than that... he is fine. However, he may NOT make the French Grand Prix in two weeks.... this will depend on the doctors and what they see in him... Personally I think he will be fine, but knowing the docs and so on (last year he missed the 2003 Italian GP's due to a major tire testing shunt he had) This gave the opportunity to Marc Gene, the Spanish third driver for Williams to take 5th spot in Monza 2003
Ralf ought to clear this in no time and with no consequence.
btw... it has been reported that Bill Gates wants to put 40 million dollars with the Toyota Grand Prix team and have Ralf Schumacher sign with the Japanese team for 2005.... |
