Fire Marshall killed at Italian Grand Prix

September 10, 2000 10:31 AM

Fire Marshall killed at Italian Grand Prix.
I hope the banked track at the new Indianapolis track doesn't kill anyone. Formula One has never raced on a banked surface before.
posted by tomcosgrave (5 comments total)

Tom, I believe the old tracks back in the 70's were banked, but yeah as far as the new crop is concerned, it's a different experience.It should be a very interesting race, as it's like having two seperate tracks, the inner high downforce section and the outer low downforce Indy semi-oval.I was really surpised to see Schumacher break down at the press conference, he's never done anything like that since '94.
posted by riffola at 12:24 PM on September 10, 2000

The F1 cars do not race at the banks on Monza. I don't think they even let anyone race on the banks anymore. The two separate accidents to start the race was due to the redesigned chicanne and inept driving by the two Jordan drivers. Everyone else bumped into them.

The incar shot from JV's car showed that he was glad to be a bit slow to reach the turns.

I do not think any marshalls will be injured at Indy. It will just be fun to see the setups for the cars. It indeed is two different tracks. The banks on Indy is not as steep as the old Monza banks or like any of the Nascar superspeedways.
posted by tamim at 4:26 PM on September 10, 2000

As long as we are talking about today's race at Monza, did anyone else notice that at one point during the race Jos (The Boss) Verstappen was actually driving 10-12 km/h faster than Schumi? (The world feed showed the time comparisons at the intervals.) It was when Jos was still in third place and right before his pit stop. I hoped he'd finish in the podium. Schumi's emotions would've been nothing compared to Jos!

This is the 6th time in his career he finished in the points.
posted by tamim at 7:17 PM on September 10, 2000

Riffola - F1 did race on banks in the 1950's and early 1960's - that was the last time. Also they raced the oval at Indy - I mentioned the word "never" because a modern GP car has never raced on a bank.

Tamim - I don't believe a marshall will get killed, but I hope drivers and fans don't and both have happened on ovals in the past year.

How and ever, it's going to be interesting. Keeping on topic, I'm hoping to be in San Francisco at the time of the race - anyone know where the hell I can see it?
posted by tomcosgrave at 11:13 AM on September 11, 2000

Actually, tamim, I think all it showed was that Verstappen had the fastest top speed on that particular straight.
posted by gyc at 1:02 PM on September 11, 2000