Short flight, heavy impact

[Skybird]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=16&v=fHZWJkcBz8U


Broken bone in the spine, but no paralysis so far. She was lucky. Very lucky. Unbelievably lucky. Usually one would expect her to be flat as a pan cake now.


Sophia Floersch, 17, GER.


http://cdn3.spiegel.de/images/image-1364112-640_panofree-vxju-1364112.jpg


She was conscious and reacted and could talk after the accident. :o She also already tweeted from hospital.

That corner is at the end of a very long straight and is driven in second gear. Other footage from different camera angle, where she shot through the air like a cannonball, gave me the idea that she got on the curbs on the right before the turn and there might have lost grip, control, or touched the wall already there.

I know the track from simulator. Its not that difficult a corner, I wonder what has happened earlier that she took off like this. Openwheelers, maybe braking wrong and rolling over the wheel of the car in front of her.

[Skybird]

Ah yes. Terribly wrong line, way over the curbs on the right. No visible braking effect, probably due to lost grip after rumbling over thr curb, I assume.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=34&v=V88l7Eb3vfI

[fumo30]

Woman driver, but where's Eich's comment?


OK, seriously, I hope she'll be alright.


To me it looked she had lost control of her car way before the curve. At the moment she appeared on screen she already was outside the track. Was there a collision or did something got broken of her car?

[Sailor Steve]

Wow! I'm surprised she survived. I was watching when Ayrton Senna died, and it's not something I would care to see again.

Going frame by frame it does indeed look like she had somehow got on that right-side wall and would have gone straight into the barricade on the other side. Instead her front end rode up over the wheel (or wing) of the other car and that launched her car into the air.

Here's hoping for a full recovery.

[fumo30]

Quote:

"After sitting in 16th place, Floersch reportedly hit the back of Jehan Daruvala on the straight before losing control."


“Sophia was really close to Jehan, so when Jehan braked early she had no time to react.
She hit Jehan’s right-rear, and that spun her around straight into Lisboa, and she flew into the other car."


https://www.news.com.au/sport/motorsport/formula-one/terrifying-crash-suspends-macau-grand-prix-as-driver-flies-through-the-air/news-story/417a40dfcf81a98ddd3f3f507434722d

[Skybird]

Heck, the car flew backwards. Maybe right that has saved her life.

[fumo30]

Maybe right that has saved her life.


Could be.:yep:

[Buddahaid]

.....Instead her front end rode up over the wheel (or wing) of the other car and that launched her car into the air....

That's one of the biggest dangers in open wheel racing.

[Jimbuna]

That is one incredibly lucky lady :o

[Skybird]

She is undergoing surgery since 9 hours now. 7th neck vertebra is broken. No paralysis, the medulla is intact.


An oiltanker's load of luck she had.


Apparently she chased the car in front of her, probably slippstreaming, on the long straight before that turn. The car braked unusually early and surprised her, she rolled onto it's back wheel, turned, slid across the tarmc, then the rubber suasage in the curbs disconnectd the car from the ground, where there used to be downforce now turned into lift, and so....

[AVGWarhawk]

How fast was she going? The car was flying over and passing those on the ground at a very high rate of speed!

Glad she is ok!!

[Buddahaid]

Even when they stay on the ground and lose traction it's amazing how much speed they carry over the cars that can brake.

[Schroeder]

How fast was she going? The car was flying over and passing those on the ground at a very high rate of speed!

Glad she is ok!!
German media says ~280km/h / 174 mph.