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The geometry of the corner itself isn't inherently dangerous and if he'd jumped out we wouldn't be talking about this, so I don't think re-profiling the turn is necessary. As Schumifan pointed out, there's an important distinction between the cause of the accident and the cause of fatal injuries. They just need to change the barriers and what lies beyond them to soften the impact and not allow any chance of a car penetrating into the area where the trees are. I don't think tarmac runoff is really the problem, had there been a sandtrap or grass there the car could have dug in or gotten air and hit the same shitty barrier and tree at a worse angle, like the roof.

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Similar to Hammond after his dragster crash. Wanted to do a piece to camera before his brain shut down.

Obviously a different result.

The only thing that needs to be done is for the armco to be fronted by something softer. Tecpro would be fine. Two walls of tyres would be equally fine. I am confident something will be done.

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Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

I read from elsewhere that the council paints the road every year at about this time... except that this year the race was one week later. But while the paint seem to have caused the spinning, I think that is actually a bit irrelevant as the car could spin for many other reasons too.

Someone(s) here said in the old Tertre exactly similar crash wouldn't have been possible:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_SnrcNvyfM (2006)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q623g1mKpdE (the crash onboard from the Corvette again)

I'm not so sure... The corner itself was slower and the racing line was a bit closer the barriers, but current cars would probably carry more speed in the old Tertre anyway than they did in 2006 and before. The barrier and the trees are probably identically there.

Based on the way the other Aston wrecked later in the race, it leads me to believe the diff issue came before the wreck. I've never seen a car snap-overcorrect as hard as the Astons did.

And the corner profile wasn't going to help in any way.

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Had my final exam today and now I'm finally able to give Simonsen's death a place in my brain. I never spoke to him, but I did run into him several times in the paddock and pitlane at Spa over the course of the years. For some reason this has hit me way harder than any other death, most likely because he was THE example of an all-round endurance racer and I always kind of followed how he performed in one of the gazillion races he participated in. I will miss spelling his name wrongly in articles and laughing at myself after checking it yet again (Simonsen => Simonson). Meh.

But I will remember him as a fucking awesome driver

Damn, what a lap.

That thing was on rails.

Has there been any news on a cause of death?

Yes, it was reported that he died due to head injuries. (On Eurosport Portugal, by Domingos Piedade who was at Le Mans)

http://jalopnik.com/why-drivers-still-d ... socialflow

Why Drivers Still Die In Racing Crashes

I see the source is on the bottom of the page, but just want to post it anyway, because I hate the Jalopnik-site with a passion (sorry)

http://blog.parathyroid.com/race-car-de ... ng-deaths/

Likely cause maybe, but I don't get how any commentator would have gotten such inside info since there has been no further official statements.

In addition to ACO's investigation there should be a normal police investigation as it counts as a road accident?

edit: typo

I read this yesterday, good article overall but really dumb to first say it has not been confirmed and then state the cause as a fact.

Because he is not a commentator, he was there watching the race live somewhere in the paddock (I think he was with César Campaniço at Audi). He works for Mercedes Benz and is also part of the board that administrates Estoril Circuit. He's also well connected and knows a lot of drivers/team members from Formula One and Le Mans.

From: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= ... nt_count=1

Clearly it is a memorial place, but is this really the crash place? I'm just wondering where is the catch fencing and why the armco looks different. Ellis, you said you visited it?

vs. http://i.imgur.com/LYoIvUP.jpg

The fencing should be there all year? http://goo.gl/maps/MbKqo

Armco looks different because it was replaced...no more fence because the car broke through it.

If you look at this pic (http://i.imgur.com/LYoIvUP.jpg) you can see that the fence does not go all the way down where the Danish flag is. Part of it is cut away. I actually doubt that the fencing goes down to the ground completely anyway.

Now I think my doubts were wrong but did you even look at the other photo (sudden reappearance of the fence)?


Also looks like it is bent from the bottom and the angle of the photo adds to it. Found more pics:

http://www.motorsport.com/lemans/photo/ ... id=1574998
http://www.motorsport.com/lemans/photo/ ... id=1574997

Skidmarks...

That is the crash site yeah. We visited. Pretty sobering. A week of mixed emotions for me watching McNish win after that accident.

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