There 2022 Formula 1 British GP race opened with the terrible accident of the pilot Alfa Romeo Guanyu Zhou. The Chinese rookie crawled onasphalt for several meters aboard his overturned C42, finishing his run on the containment nets of the Stowe Curve: he came out unscathed from the terrible impact thanks to the presence of thehalo that saved his life. We will analyze the dynamics of the accident by focusing on the particular structure of the C42 roll-barwhich collapsed upon impact.
British GP accident
Over the course of its almost 100-year history, the highest expression of motoring has always accustomed us to witnessing accidents that are as spectacular as they are bloody. Some of these ended with the worst of epilogues, while others ended with some bruises on the part of the pilot and a great scare on the part of the public. This is the case of the rookie Alfa Romeo Sauber driver Guanyu Zhou who at Silverstone, during the race of the British GPwas the star of a sensational accident (here the video) at the first corner, keeping everyone breathless on their necks.
The dynamics of the accident involving Alfa Romeo number 24 do not differ much, at least in what was the origin of the clash, from those seen up to now in Formula 1. When a driver is in the middle of the grid, he knows well that the percentage of contacts with other single-seaters is very high and a slight collision with another car is really enough to trigger a chain accident like the one we witnessed during the last race of the Formula 1 world championship (here the calendar of the 2022 season).
The spectacular nature of the incident lies in the unpredictability of the overturning which was the victim of the Alfa Romeo C42, which crawled first on asphalt, and then on gravel, stopping its run against the containment nets present in Curva 1 (Stowe). Unlike what has been said and read on the web, it is necessary to specify that the car of Guanyu Zhou it did not overturn for a mere aerodynamic questionbut because of the contact between his right rear wheel and the left front of George Russell’s Mercedes W13, the impact of which created a sort of “ramp” that turned the Chinese car upside down. Thanks to presence of the halo has created a huge thickness between the driver’s head and the asphalt a task which, as a rule, the roll-bar of the single-seater should fulfill which, instead, collapsed upon contact with the asphalt.
Roll-bar with structural problem on the Alfa Romeo Sauber C42?
At the moment of impact with the asphalt, we witnessed an atypical event: the roll-bar of Zhou’s C42 it disintegrated upon impact with the asphalt. This should not happen as the chassis crash tests, which F1 cars are subjected to, must pass some static compression tests with several tons applied simultaneously from multiple directions (at the same time) so that the structure remains more integral to that of the frame so that it does not undergo neither a deformation nor a total disintegration, as happened during the English race.
We need to talk and analyze the very particular structure of the roll-bar mounted on board the Alfa Romeo C42. This structure is defined “Monolithic blade” and it looks a lot like a kind of turret that has a vertical airfoil, different from the classic triangular roll-bar integrated into the shape of the engine’s dynamic grip. Indeed, a triangular structure that rests on several points is more rigid (therefore hyperstatic to use the jargon of mechanics), while the profile of the Alfa Romeo roll-bar – the support of which hinges on a single point – has undergone very heavy lateral stresses that have uprooted the structure causing it to collapse on itself. This feature may have caused the failure.
Alfa Romeo Sauber under investigation by the FIA?
As it happened for Grosjean crash during the 2020 Bahrain GP, the dynamics that involved Guanyu Zhou’s car in a very bad crash will be analyzed. The event could provide the necessary starting point to be able to change, in a short time, the shape of the roll-bars of the Formula 1 single-seaters, avoiding the repetition of a similar situation.
Since the accident involving Grosjean, the structure of the tank of the F1 single-seaters was immediately revised and made more resistant, while after the tragic accident of Jules Bianchi which took place in Suzuka in 2015, they immediately thought of a solution to protect the part. top of the pilots, giving birth to the safety device called halo.
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👉 New single-seaters with ground effect
👉 NEWS F1 2022 New technical regulation F1 2022
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