Quote from evilpimp :

K but look at this incident, I'm pretty sure they should be able to withstand a greater force then what was put on it here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiwNPJwTA7A

I can almost guarentee that for a split second there was a huge force going through that wheel.

Also see Coulthard's crash in Fuji last year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFEPIXUJEgY

Wheel tethers are not infinitely strong.

Wheel tethers are made of Zylon in F1, F2, IRL and presumably other series that use wheel tethers. It is very strong, but has no give. It stretches much less than steel.

What happens when the wheel gets to the end of the tether is that the energy of the wheel is transferred to the mounting points in an extremly short space of time (same as hitting a wall without a crumple zone to spread the load). In some cases, the wheel will reach the end of the tether positioned so that the wheel twists as the tether reaches limit, but I think that still only partially helps, as we see by the number of times tethers fail. F1 cars have 2 tethers iirc, one shorter than the other. The shorter one takes part of the strain if/when it snaps, leaving the main tether to take the rest. I don't know how it works in F2.

To improve tethers, you could build in a deforming section - either a more elastic section or slipping mounting points, such as they use in seatbelts. Or you could have lots of tethers of varying sizes, so they break in turn and each take some of the impact. Feel free to add more ways!

One question I have is why does the amount of detatched wheels differ so much between F2, F1 and Indycars? They all use the same material as I said, so why are indycars so good at keeping wheels attatched compared to F1, and why is F2 so much worse than F1?

Hope that made sense!

Liking the sig btw Jack

Makes sense. Look at that video, you see the tethers in action really well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh5Gllk2g70&NR=1

I'm really devastated with this. I mean, I changed the channel before the crash, but after knowing of his death, I just felt like..."Un****ingbelievable". I'm even astonished for not shedding a tear over this after reading all tributes and how Henry was a great person not only racing but also out of the track. And then looking at his crash...holy shit, there was no way he could've survived that.

R.I.P

Not sounding rude but i think his dad will die soon from his Henrys death putting him down. He was with henry morning, noon and night.
John was the only one out of brundle and palmer who went to every meeting supporting his son.

Them tethers on that video are useless. Held the wheel on for a few seconds and then it flew off.

Open wheeler's i think need a shell going over them for more safety. (Like a classic aeroplane cockpit)

T'is a bit of an insensetive thing to come out with is it not Jordan?

I can only hope some ignorant idiots don't start writing into newspapers about racing now.

Quote from Jordan2007 :

Open wheeler's i think need a shell going over them for more safety. (Like a classic aeroplane cockpit)

I don't think that'll work. They will need to be easily detatchable for obvious reasons, and they will just fail at the fastening points. And that will be very dangerous if a car rolls over. And think back to the Wurz/Coulthard accident, had there been a structure like that in place it would have just snapped off.

Loads of money has been spent towards making fighter aircraft canopies impact safe with no success.

Protective roll cages were tried in practise at the Indy 500 one year in the early 70s (I've seen pictures somewhere), but they disrupted the airflow to the rear wing, causing stability problems.

Quote from pearcy_2k7 :

Man its such a nasty accident, just watch what happens to the wheel after, just to show how hard he hit it. R.I.P

The wheel went into woods in the spectator area. i was there and was about to walk from sheene curve to westfield. pretty lucky.

Quote from Timdpr :

One question I have is why does the amount of detatched wheels differ so much between F2, F1 and Indycars? They all use the same material as I said, so why are indycars so good at keeping wheels attatched compared to F1, and why is F2 so much worse than F1?

Hope that made sense!

Liking the sig btw Jack

Everybody is forgetting the bleedingly obvious shortcoming of tethers... They are not attached to the wheel. They are attached to the hub, which basically has one wheelnut keeping the wheel on. If any part holding the wheel onto the hub fails, it's goodbye wheel, tethers or not.

The reason some cars are better at keeping the wheels on is simply because the suspensions are much tougher in Indycar (they need to be able to withstand a small impact with a wall), and so is the wheel hub. It is less likely to break off during impact.

I'd say the hubs in F2 can't handle much of an impact at all.

And of course sometimes the tethers just fail and you see wheels with suspensions attached rolling and bouncing across the track.

A fantasic point, and well made.

Basically, in an accident, bits fall off cars. Sometimes people are just unlucky. Like Henry.

I may not watch F2, but sad stories are sad.

What an unlucky way to go too.

R.I.P.

Quote from tristancliffe :

A fantasic point, and well made.

Basically, in an accident, bits fall off cars. Sometimes people are just unlucky. Like Henry.

+1. It seems obvious now

And I agree, it really is luck that determines what bits fall of a car, where they go and if anything else is there when they arrive.

In a youtube video of the accident someone who works with F2 cars said that if there is a shearing force the wheel comes off really easily, the tether being practically useless. The video was 'Removed by the user' unfortunately, so I suppose this doesn't sound very reliable! I'm sure there is some more info on this somewhere though.