So, Red Bull does give you wings?..

Why does the official cross the road?





An official at a Red Bull event for tsunami victims in Chiba Japan decided it was time to get to the other side right as Sebastian Buemi's RB6 was making a pass.

What role lingering Fukushima radiation played in his decision making is unknown but perhaps it was those free cans of the sticky pink stuff that allowed the man do to a reasonable frightened deer imitation and avoid getting his legs sliced off.

He was not seriously harmed, despite the hard landing.
(via Blick.ch)
More about Red Bull

Postcard from Monaco 2

(photo Axis of Oversteer)

Toro Rosso's Sebastian Buemi stamps PIRELLI onto the guard rail at Massenet towards the end of Free Practice 1..

More on Buemi's crash.

Some isolated shots and more super slow motion video of the incredible Toro Rosso double suspension failure. The right side upright failed but the force was immediately transferred to the other side of the suspension, the stills are one frame apart so within 1/30th of a second and you can clearly see both sides have collapsed.

Not sure why this incredible transfer of energy would occur, that will be up to those more familiar with the specific suspension design. I would venture to say though is that a design which allows this to happen cannot be deemed safe.

Another thing you might notice is in the very last onboard replay. You can hear the car was scraping and skipping on the pavement well before the failure occurred, listen for the sound.

Again, the failure of the tethering is most troubling (remember what happened to Henry Surtees). In one of these replays you can clearly see the cameramen likely ducked for his life as the right side wheel slams into the camera position.












end of post

Insane Suspension Failure

This was Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi just a few laps into the first practice session in Shanghai.
I can't recall ever seeing anything like this. Maybe Kimi Raikkonen's suspension failure with Mclaren, but that was just one side and after running many laps with a square wheel. This was just incredible, Buemi is very lucky.

Another thing to add is...what happened to the wheel tethers? the right wheel looks like it end up nailing one of the the cameras.

Toto Rosso says it's the upright that failed. From the video it looks like it was the carbon fiber arms that failed and the failure of two "aluminum" upright/hubs at the same time seems impossible. Readers need to help me out here, I remember F1 teams were running or at least experimenting with a front axle system that distributed braking torque between the wheels. Might that explain why both sides failed simultaneously?





end of post