McNish / Audi crash - today Le Mans

[Nine17]

I wouldn't place the blame in either of the Audi wrecks on any party. $hit happens, and very quickly too.

Spoken like the true racer that you are, John.

However, I do place blame on Rob Kauffman for being in over his head and chopping Rocky. I've been told that the driver's meeting was very clear about the GTE cars keeping to their own half of the road on that segment. It's very fast, narrow, and lined with guard-rails and trees on both sides. Intimidating just to watch. The bankster appears to have gotten a case of tunnel-vision due to his inexperience and lost awareness of his surroundings.

-- David

[boba]

David, while my last time at Le Mans was in '96 my point was not in regard to the chicane but to the increasing rate of elevation going up the hill to the crest. And I was not trashing McNish, but I do feel his move over taking Timo when he (Timo) checked up/made a mistake put him (McNish) in a position with no good possible outcome. It was a racing incident, not a bone headed move but it was McNish who drove into it. My other point was that it was not the Ferrari that caused the shunt. It is further my thinking that if McNish was aware of the position of the three GT cars he would not have made that move. I think he came into that position somewhat blind.

Now with Rocky's shunt I feel that the Ferrari driver made a bad move.

Sorry if you feel some are being too harsh with McNish but that severe a shunt will be analyzed for a long time.

[Bummler]

Video from another perspective

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djX3AHHJyrQ

[JohnT]

David,

Thanks for the compliment! Though we can debate it's merit in another thread, or over a glass of something sometime.

It's really dark out where Rockenfeller and Kauffman came together. With the really bright headlights on the Audi, limited rear vision in the Ferrari, and the high closing speed I suspect that a fatigued Kauffman might not have been able to figure out where the Audi was (except right up his tailpipes!). In an interview right after the incident, he (Kauffman) gave an answer referring to the instructions in the drivers' meeting about slower cars holding their line which he said he was doing.

We hear this in about every drivers' meeting that I've attended so it's perhaps not an unusual instruction.

In the coulda-shoulda-woulda world a brief lift by Kauffman prior to arriving at his turn-in point or Rockenfeller not diving for a rapidly disappearing apex might have changed the outcome substantially. Nobody ever said racing for 11 hours into a dark night ever improved one's judgment...........

cheers!

johnt

[Nine17]

Someone told me that the accident happened on Kauffman's second-ever lap of night racing after strapping-in for a new stint. Also, there is not an "apex" for that gentle bend to the right. You would want to be track-left anyway, because you're about to brake hard to turn right before Indianapolis. It's a public road with a broken white line down the middle, which experienced GT drivers use to maintain their "lane." I suspect that the new 458 Italia has a squirrely polar-moment, and Kauffman was over-focused on staying on the road -- or may even have momentarily forgotten where he was, thinking that he had arrived at Indianapolis, which can be a very dangerous corner.

It's certainly fun bench-racing here. Cheaper than the real thing, too!

-- David

[boba]

A part of the point I was trying to make in talking about the uphill to the Dunlop curves and the downhill thru the corner where the contact was made was that the Video makes it look a lot flatter that it actually is. I think this is the distortion for the focal length of the lens, Randy could better explain that effect. We often see these events with only the perspective of the camera and not an understanding of the actual ground being covered.

[Nine17]

p.s interesting that Mcnish i felt did not really give any insight into his decision to make that move.

My point above is that in reality McNish did not MAKE a move. He simply held his line as Timo went wide off-course. Timo steered back onto the track, but his lost momentum put him two-wide right next to Nishy. McNish found himself being squeezed to the inside by Timo and had nowhere to go. Alan McNish has too much class to place blame on a team-mate. We also don't know if Timo had in turn been balked by someone entering the racetrack from the pit-out, explaining his excursion outside the rumble-strip. That's the problem with relying on the TV feed from eight-and-a-half miles of circuit occupied by 56 cars...

[boba]

got it-object movement is always relative to another object and can also be distorted by parallax.I can see how it can seem to be a move when it wasn't-would love to see the data during those few seconds.

raj

This effect can be realized when looking at in car footage and the coming together of two car usually seem to be the other car moving into the car which is the camera platform.

[ErichW]

Mcnish wrecked his Audi, he has done little of that. Best wishes to him next year. $hit happens.