Lance Stroll will return to the track regularly at Suzuka and will participate in the Japanese GP. The Canadian driver will be in the cockpit of the Aston Martin AMR23 which will have to be rebuilt in the Japanese garages starting from the spare chassis, after the “green car” was destroyed in the terrible accident at the conclusion of Q1 of the Singapore GP.
Stroll ended up on the external curb of the penultimate corner, which is driven in sixth gear at around 240 km/h, and lost control of his car, ending up against the protections placed on the outside of turn 19. The impact with the barriers was was very violent, at an estimated speed of over 210 km/h.
The vital cell of the Aston Martin withstood the impact perfectly with an estimated deceleration of 40 G. The pilot emerged unscathed from the crash: Lance came out of the cockpit without external help and was accompanied to the Medical Center only to follow the FIA practices. Stroll had obtained the doctors’ approval to participate in the race, but after a meeting with the team it was decided to give up the GP both because the rider was in pain all over his body (bruises with belt marks had appeared), and because very little was saved from the AMR23 and it was better to proceed with the reconstruction of the second car with due calm.
The accident, however spectacular, would not have left any consequences other than drying up the budget that each team budgets to avoid exceeding the cost limit: there is talk of damage of 1.2 million dollars! In reality, the dynamics of this accident are under the lens of the FIA technical commissioners and will be studied by the special commission working in Lausanne.
In this explosion, which could have had dramatic effects, two events were recorded that raised the safety alarm threshold. It may seem like a contradiction in terms, given that Lance got out of the car on his own legs and reported nothing other than a clear state of shock, but observing the remains of the AMR23, two danger signs emerged.
Stroll had crashed at Spa-Francorchamps during qualifying: you can see the retention cables they had held
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
The left front wheel detached from the chassis, flying away dangerously: it could have ended up in the stands or in the nearby pitlane, or it could have rolled into another car, given that Oscar Piastri was arriving with the McLaren and the Australian was good at avoid impact. Since 2018, the International Federation has made three metal retention cables mandatory for each wheel in order to ensure stability in case all the suspension arms break.
The wheel retention cables have become three starting from 2018, whereas previously two were enough
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
The “tear” would have occurred in the cable anchors on the chassis side, giving further confirmation of the energy that would have been released in the impact, showing that, perhaps, the cornering speeds were too high for certain city circuits with very limited escape routes.
The second element of concern concerns the lateral anti-intrusion cone: the element made of composite materials performed its task perfectly, but some images of the AMR23 wreck show that the cone would not have been compressed, absorbing the violent charge, but would have stuck in the TecPro barrier and in the rotation of the car during the crash it would have broken. A new problem would therefore emerge that needs to be carefully analyzed.
The FIA technicians are very attentive and prepared and will be able to study the data from the Stroll crash (remember that since 2016 at the root of the Halo there is also a Marelli micro camera which records with HD images at 200 frames per second everything that happens in the passenger compartment and surrounding areas), well aware that safety research must never stop.
Lance had no consequences from the crash in Singapore, so the pilot’s protection systems all worked, but this accident brought a couple of critical issues to the attention of the federal commissioners, and we are sure that they will be studied with the necessary attention.
#Stroll #crash #safety #warning #signs