Heikki dead ten years ago, claims Olvey.

wtf ??? Please change the headline.. that was a bad one ...

Quote me wrong, but i thought the FIA had medical cars at different points of the track?
So the car nearest to an accident would be there in good time!

It same sort of accident that Burti had many years ago in the prost at Spa in Belgium, but then Burti got buried in and under the tyre wall and had to be dug out!

I agree with Grizz that the headline is a bit, well, creepy. "Heikki accident would have been fatal ten years ago" is a bit more appropriate. Makes it sound like Olvey is claiming Heikki is dead and there is an impostor at McLaren.

The conveyor belts around tyre walls seem a bit hit and miss. Undoubtedly they help, but in this case I wonder whether they did in fact hinder - once the car was burrised in the tyres, the conveyor was quite a hinderence in trying to get Kovi out.

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I still find it funny that one of the most important safety features in F1 is basically a pile of tyres. I'm surprised there isn't some kind of foam block that can be used instead, you know, something like those Oasis blocks you can stick flowers into. Solid enough to absorb the shock of a car, but fragile enough that it can be removed easily should someone crash into it.

Tyre walls obviously seem an outstanding solution to absorbing a speeding F1 car (as Heikki will attest) but once the car has stopped they seem to be a royal pain in the bum.

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I still find it funny that one of the most important safety features in F1 is basically a pile of tyres. I'm surprised there isn't some kind of foam block that can be used instead, something like those Oasis blocks you can stick flowers into. Solid enough to absorb the shock of a car, but fragile enough that it can be removed easily should someone crash into it.

Tyre walls obviously seem an outstanding solution to absorbing a speeding F1 car (as Heikki will attest) but once the car has stopped they seem to be a royal pain in the bum.

Tyre barriers are only safe if they are built in such a way that they have efficient water drainage if it rains. If they fill with water they become a solid mass of very hard matter.
We all remember Michael Schumachers terrifying crash in July, 1999 at Silverstone.

The problem is with whatever barrier material you use is it has to be easy to replace after an incident.

Foam blocks or similar material as suggested by an earlier post are possible alternatives but once you hit them at speed it would need extensive clear up and then replacement of whole sections of the barrier because these materials normally come apart on impact as part of the dissipation of energy.

Tyres are cheap but they don't disintegrate on impact, dissipate energy extremely well depending on how they are held together and are relatively easy to put back into place after an incident. They're a pain when the front end of your car is embedded in them but I bet HK isn't complaining.

Crash seem to make a habit of falsifying headlines to attract attention. Please....give it a rest, before you get catagorised with the likes of The Sun newspaper!!
A monkey could have come-up with a better headline than that!

Dr. Olvey is right... And he could even have put it further: the degree of stupidity and unprofessionalism displayed by the spanish marshals war terrifying. They ran around like a bunch of scared chicken, seemingly not knowing what to do next. And then it took the medical car ages to reach the accident point. It looked like it was driving around on a sunday stroll.

Sorry, but if you wanna see what the term "rapid response" really means, type "katherine Legge Elkhart" into Youtube and count the seconds it took for the guys to arrive a the crash site. Most of the debris hadn't even touched the ground when the first safety team truck arrived. THAT's what it's supposed to look like

"Heikki dead ten years ago, claims Olvey."

Holy shit, he died ten years ago, holy cow!, so what have we driving that car now? freakin finnish Zombie! Damn man!

when Dr. olvy speaks people and F1 better listen, he's the best in the buisness, F1 needs a dedicated safety team IE like the Holmotro CART team, the same goes for NASCAR

funnily enough, i disagree with what olvey has said. to me, heikkis crash was one in the same as schumis at silverstone 9 years ago. i don't think heikki will have died but bones would have been broken.

by the way, people go on about how safe f1 has gotten, which in most cases is true but i don't like the look of what is to come. the red bulls are as strong as paper and the floor of heikkis mclaren in barcelona was ripped. how did kovy escape without a broken leg or two?

it was olvey who saved alex zanardi after his horrible accident in 2001

@ mark: Spot on! You said it! Dr. Steve Olvey IS the best in the business! And Holmatro was one of a kind.

Nothing against Dr. Hartstein, he's also a brilliant doc, but he is only as good as his team, and Sunday's shown that this is where there's still BIG BIG room for improvement in F1.

It's unbelievable how stupid some of the comments on this story on Crash,Net have been. All sorts of would-be experts express opinions about the HK accident and the precautions taken, the tyre barriers and the strength of the car without any knowledge of the subject.

Do these people not understand that millions of dollars are spent each year by the FIA and the FIA Foundation on improving safety. Unless the FIA's researchers are entirely incompetent, they are likely to know a great deal more about the subject that the people who post here.

By all means comment on the trivia of F1 but please don't try to tell the experts where they have gone wrong on safety.

I do think he would have been seriously injured if not paralysed had this crash occured 10 years ago, but it shows how safe and strong the cars are now and I hope they continue to get even better and the recovery time will be shorter now with the type of injury sustained.

and if it was 20 years ago ........and if it was 30 years ago, blah blah blah........ main point is, the boy want injured...... dont blaim history cos your track safety was pathetic...... you are the chief safety officer........ its your bloody job to forsee any event....... you should be sacked............ plain to me YOU failed to react.......... resign, if you care so much & let your repacement know the conciquences for such a deriliction of duty

Cant believe any safety offical couldnt blame himself

Erm, am I the only one to find that last post quite impossible to understand?

Sir, whom exactly are you referring to? Dr. Olvey? Sorry to tell you, but he's NOT the Catalunya Circuit's Chief of Security.

Where you talking to the security chief then? That would make sense, but I don't think that he actally blamed history...

Or where you talking to the voices in your head?