F1 car loses both front wheels - GIF

[Altair]

Formula One car loses both front wheels.




Previously:

Formula One car chassis - photo
Formula One jack - GIF and photo
Formula One steering wheel functions - GIF
Formula One front brake assembly - photo
Active suspension that was banned in Formula One - video

[Karl_H]

I hope this happened when TP was still plentiful.

[hemmjo]

Looks like it happened when the driving initiated braking prior to entering the corner.

[bruce.desertrat]

" Oh, Lord Jesus take the whe...NOT THAT WHEEL, JESUS!!!"

I like the momentary reaction by the driver "I'll steer my way out...oh yea that won't work!" and he takes his hands off the steering wheel. It reminds me of the time my bicycle chain broke while I was crossing a busy street. First, instinctive response was to pedal harder...which was like a cartoon character running in place...

[Duke_of_URL]

Two in the pit crew lost jobs that day.

[hemmjo]

Two in the pit crew lost jobs that day.

Could have been a crew members fault, but in order for both wheels to fail in exactly the came way at exactly the some moment, they would both have to have made the same mistake in exactly the same way in the short, 2-3 second pitstop. Not saying it could NOT have been a pit issue, but I am thinking it was a part failure. Two parts, engineered to be on the edge to save weight. Since F-1 turns both directions, both sides would be the same design.

That my guess, no facts, just another option.

[Frank S]

In my opinion I think it is a computer generated video. Every aspect of the of the video is too perfect from the tires simultaneously being expelled from the vehicle to the strangely appearing controlled crash from multiple view angles

[hemmjo]

If it is fake, the faker went to a lot of trouble to get the incident documented on various media outlets.

BBC Sport - F1 - Sebastien Buemi escapes 200mph crash unhurt in Shanghai

It looks more real in this video.

[Frank S]

Ok I get that they said 1 upright failed causing immediate failure of the other one, but the way the wheels came off when viewed from any angle available it looks like everything disconnected at the same instant upper and lower ball joints Hiems or what ever the connecting points were that held the spindles tot eh control arms the steering rod ends and the brake lines on both sides would have had to fail instantly in order for both wheel assemblies to leave the car in a straight line.
I could wrap my head around a domino effect one part causes another and another and another part to fail due to stress loading, but everything seemingly at once is hard for me to comprehend. even if every component had been made of glass with designed in weakening points I would have thought this would have been hard to accomplish.
I understand optimization for weight bur to design something as critical as the steering components to the point that they barely have the strength to hold together seems crazy.

[hemmjo]

If you go to youtube to watch the video, you can slow it down to .25 normal speed. Then go frame by frame using the "<" and ">" keys. (comma and period. shift key not required). The regular arrow keys jump forward and back 1 second. Start at 2 seconds and step forward, the first thing you should notice is brake dust flying back. Next frame you see something fly upward from the right side. You can see the right side tire breaks loose just a fraction of a second before the left side. Stepping forward you see the right side tire significantly ahead of the left side when it comes back into the frame.

When I see the right side tire instantly jump ahead of the car, I have to assume that the driver got on the brakes preparing for the turn. They don't feather the brakes, they drive as deep as they can at the highest speed possible then get HARD on the brakes just short of locking up the tires. Both brakes were applied at the same instant, applying extreme forces to the suspension on both sides simultaneously. Unlike what I read in the article about one side failure causing the other side to fail, I believe that both sides failed from the sudden application of maximum braking forces, overwhelmed both sides. If the part had failed on a straight stretch, I would expected there to be some separation between one side failing and the other side letting go. The braking forces are the most extreme forces there are in any car. More extreme that the forces supplied by the engine. Except for Top Fuel, and Funny Car in drag racing where they use parachutes.

The parts are precisely fabricated following the engineers specifications. If one was engineered on the wrong side of that ragged edge, the other had exactly the same design flaws.

Just my from my perspective.