Ouch!

[Drofder2004]

Massa gets hit by spring, causing double skull fracture to both his forehead and the base of his skull.
Suffered concussion and is currently "serious but stable" after an emergency operation.

That must've hit him fucking hard to go through his helmet and damage two sections of his skull!.
Pause at about 1:50. (Video will probably be removed soon).

[helium]

Holy shit.

The video will most likely not be removed by the way

[Drofder2004]

Pause the video as it hits his head.

The lightest version of that size spring is above 170lbs (~80kg). For comparison, that is roughly the average male weight!

O_O

[F |Madness| U]

Did his steering cut out or something?

It looked to me as if he didnt try and go around the corner before he went off the track and over the gravel/sand.

[F |Madness| U]

Maybe because he had just been hit in the head with a spring at 200miles per hour, smashing his helmet and skull? Reasonably sure that will knock you out.

I think i must have missed something when I first watched it, gonna watch it again.

[F |Madness| U]

I completely missed the spring that was on the road that hit him on the head!

I thought he just went off the track and crashed, my bad.

Must've been so painful for the split second before he went unconscious.

[matt101harris]

Ouch :S how unlucky

[woCooM]

The lightest version of that size spring is above 170lbs (~80kg). For comparison, that is roughly the average male weight!

You what?!

That spring probably weighs in at 200-500grams maximum (probably less as the whole car + driver is only just 660KG+)

Granted hitting it at 175MPH+ while it bounces towards you is going to increase its ability to penetrate (effective weight).

Looking at that video and seeing how the spring was side on as it hits his helmet, I'd assume that its hit the join of his helmet and visor (mostly the helmet), before spinning off to the helmet side taking a chunk of the carbon-fibre and perspex with it.

The impact on that area would explain the fracture to his left eye area, and the force of his head hitting the bodywork after decelerating 125-0 in 0.001 seconds is probably the cause of the second fracture.

I'm sure the FIA will release more information once they have investigated everything properly.

[woCooM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06dsOwfe7xo

That Surtees incident was such a freek occourance, 1/1000th of a second either side and he would have been fine.
but then the same could be said for this massa incident.

Its just the downside of opencockpit single seater cars...

Whats the bet some form of canopy has to be included in 2011?

[JDogg]

Shit, where did that spring come from?.

[JDogg]

Shit, where did that spring come from?.

The back of Barrichellos car, article here regarding his car breaking:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsp ... 168872.stm

Ah, I was watching it over and over to see where it came from.

[Nightmare]

Aftermath:

[Drofder2004]

That spring probably weighs in at 200-500grams maximum (probably less as the whole car + driver is only just 660KG+)

Yep, my bad, I think I misread weight to weight load.

Plus my knowledge of springs is limited to what I have picked up compared to my amazing no care for Formula One, meaning no knowledge of weight .

either way, effective weight at 200mph, is probably just as on the target.

[Pedsdude]

Aye, a bad accident, evidently not as bad as the Surtees one, though...

[Drofder2004]

What did the other guy die from, was it the blow from the wheel or the crash on the barrier?

If Massa survives I seriously doubt his chances of driving again at all, and potentially some sort of long term damage.