Is Eau Rouge Too Dangerous?

[Lesley Buurlage]

interesting read. i've never seen eau rouge as too dangerous, just as a corner that if you get it right no worries, but if you fck up you're screwed. on the top the barriers do their job i think, going upwards should be tecpro though. i have more confidence in the techpro's than tyres nowadays, although tyres still look cool and old-school tecpros do a better job. one thing though which you can't change is just the natural aspects of the corner, going upwards you don't know what's gonna happen at the top, a gust of wind or a wiggle at the rear and magnussen proved that you're done for.

the paul ricard thingy is actually pretty interesting, always though it was just a big blue and red car park designed by pussies, but the fact that there's actual thought behind it and adapted into the tarmac is something i've never heard of before. i wonder though if it would make any diffrence at eau rouge though, the speeds there are so high, is another type of tarmac really going to to something? it was mentioned that it slowed down the cars a bit and gave higher tyre wear. although that i like ghe tyre wear thing, i think an even rougher surface would be needed to make the cars actually slow down

 

[Jimlaad43]

Don't touch Eau Rouge!
Just tell the drivers to step up a little the right foot from the throttle, approaching this fast S corner.
Every road in every city of this planet can be dangerous if you drive like a thunderbolt using a brick instead of the foot.

Runoff is always designed to take into account entry speeds to the corner and assuming something breaks in the car, such as what happened to Fittipaldi. Just because everyone brakes for a corner, it doesn't mean that nobody will ever have a brake failure, or aquaplane off in the rain.

 

[Tbear]

My first thought here is that there is no excuse for cars getting airborne on their own underbody in the year 2018.

The aerodynamics knowledge is there, it is up to the race series rules to make front anti-lift safety mandatory so that designers don't have to trade speed for safety.

Although high-downforce cars getting airborne is only part of what is going on here, this is an interesting thought. Automatic and very low tech, Roof flaps in NASCAR (Vid HERE) have done a lot to spoil lift and keep cars on the ground, and they are constructed in such a way that they can't be seen.


On the track cutting matter, there is NO WAY anybody can make a racing driver slow down or obey track limits on his own, especially a young hard charger. You might as well try to tell him he can't have sex.

For all those track cutters, why not an electronic system, maybe based on GPS technology, that will cause an engine to mis-fire and lose power when a driver puts four tires over the white line? And make it punitive, so that it absolutely kills his speed for a period of time, maybe costing him a lap. Given the current technology, this should be easy to do and relatively cheap.

If merely slowing down the car is deemed not a sufficient deterrent, allow this system to record the driver's name and assess him fines, grid positions, suspensions or outright bans.

ADDED: Eau Rouge is NOT the problem, Eau Rouge is the CHALLENGE. If we it cut down, we might as well end motor racing.

 

[FernandoAFM]

Even in iRacing, i've never crashed there, ever. I've gone off the track, yes, but never crashed into the wall.

I am not doubting you, but that’s quite a strong statement there.

EDIT
I misread. You meant just that corner. That sounds better lol

 

[Richard Dastardly]

On the track cutting matter, there is NO WAY anybody can make a racing driver slow down or obey track limits on his own, especially a young hard charger. You might as well try to tell him he can't have sex.

For all those track cutters, why not an electronic system, maybe based on GPS technology, that will cause an engine to mis-fire and lose power when a driver puts four tires over the white line? And make it punitive, so that it absolutely kills his speed for a period of time, maybe costing him a lap. Given the current technology, this should be easy to do and relatively cheap.

Driver's briefing: "If you disobey track limits in the Eau Rouge-Radillon complex you'll get a stop & go every time. No warnings."

I am quite certain being dragged into the pits every lap you cut that corner will ram the message home quickly no matter how hotheaded you are. And it doesn't cost anything more than a marshall or two with a radio there. That way they can also check to see if someone's been forced off track & not deliberately cut.

 

[SockyNoob]

Just dig into the hills to the side and get rid of the stupid speed bumps. Don't change the turn itself. Maybe you could have the Paul Ricard stuff. Or maybe sand. Do flat bottom cars bounce on sand as well?

 

[Thomas Lambaerts]

What if they removed some of the runoff?
Cars are going in the wall head on it seems. Obviously not the slowest way to stop. Like you can see by the skidmarks here, they are at 90 degree angle a lot.

From top down you can even see that the wall has to come towards the track at the top of radillion, increasing the angle towards 90°.

If the walls were closer to the track, the cars would be more likely to hit at lower than 45° angles. Thus not instantly stopping the cars but making them slide along. Like in nascar or street tracks and avoiding that 100+ G crash. Side effect would be offcourse cars might be pushed back into traffic.

And about the tyre walls look are classic. Fasten a tyre on top of a tecpro and behold modern safetywalls with vintage look

 

[dud]

What if they removed some of the runoff?
Cars are going in the wall head on it seems. Obviously not the slowest way to stop. Like you can see by the skidmarks here, they are at 90 degree angle a lot.

From top down you can even see that the wall has to come towards the track at the top of radillion, increasing the angle towards 90°.

If the walls were closer to the track, the cars would be more likely to hit at lower than 45° angles. Thus not instantly stopping the cars but making them slide along. Like in nascar or street tracks and avoiding that 100+ G crash. Side effect would be offcourse cars might be pushed back into traffic.

And about the tyre walls look are classic. Fasten a tyre on top of a tecpro and behold modern safetywalls with vintage look

I think that is risky. They could still come up with all kinds of angles. And the skid marks visible right now represent a large amount of energy disposed of into rubber-on-track before hitting the wall.

 

[Mitja Bonca]

Corners are fine, those anti cut sausage curbs needs to be removed. And maybe to expend the run off areas, specially on the left side out of Eau Rouge.

 

[Neilski]

If the walls were closer to the track, the cars would be more likely to hit at lower than 45° angles.

True, but apart from energy lost on the way to the wall (@dud's reply) you've also got the problem that far more debris (and entire cars) would wind up on the racing line, making the first few seconds after a crash a much scarier time.
Btw, the thing that also bothers me about tarmac run-off (vs. the not-remotely-perfect gravel/sand/loose stuff) is that a car with broken suspension will lose almost no speed sliding across it to the wall. And broken suspension is not so rare...

 

[Richard Dastardly]

Btw, the thing that also bothers me about tarmac run-off (vs. the not-remotely-perfect gravel/sand/loose stuff) is that a car with broken suspension will lose almost no speed sliding across it to the wall. And broken suspension is not so rare...

Those catch-fences Silverstone used to have were really good at stopping broken cars - the problem was getting the car out of them again ( and they tended to wrap the car up so the driver was a bit stuck ). I'm sure we can design a better fence.

Put them close enough to the track & you've definitely discouraged anyone from using too much of the runoff area

 

[Neilski]

I'm sure we can design a better fence.

Probably true. Perhaps with a good enough barrier you don't need to scrub off speed before the impact...

 

[MoerasGrizzly]

way too dangerous, they definitely should reinstall the '94 F1 chicane.

Nah, what they should do is statistically reduce the risk of accidents in Eau Rouge by simply ensuring that the cars pass that corner less every race.

You can do that if you reinstate the 60s layout of Spa so that the cars run less laps

 

[Dennis Phelan]

You cannot stop drivers from trying too hard or prevent the failure of parts. Racers know that!