Car Races Today

Today was the Formula One race in Monaco.  It’s my least favorite F1 course.  It’s really narrow, passing is virtually impossible, so it’s basically a parade.  A bad pit stop can affect the course of the race, but it’s pretty much decided by pole position.

However, there are occasionally interesting crashes – like this one.  When the camera first cut to this, it took the commentators a moment to figure out what they were seeing.  It’s a car up on its side.



One of the track workers is talking to the driver, who is fine.



Replay shows us that Jenson Button hit the other car and flipped him up on his side.



Look at his left front wheel, he’s done for the day as well.



It was a sad race for us.  We’re fans of Mercedes, who were not on the podium in any position.  Ferrari is just eating everyone elses’ lunch this season.

Then we turned our attention to the Indy 500.  Those cars are not as safe as F1 cars IMHO.  I don’t follow Indy car racing, so I don’t know the drivers’ names.  The top car went airborne.



Notice that the car is upside down, and the driver’s head is moving toward that low fence.



This guy is lucky, two or three more feet on that trajectory, and he would have died from hitting his head on the wall.



The car righted itself before hitting the ground.  The drivers do have strong safety bucket around them, but their heads are really exposed.  This was an impressive accident.  Happily, everyone walked away from it.



Diversity has come to the Indy 500!