Lewis crash at Valencia

[chap]

McLaren rookie Lewis Hamilton escaped unharmed after badly damaging one of the team's new MP4-22 cars in a crash in testing at Valencia on Thursday.

The 22-year-old, on just his second day in the team’s latest challenger, will not now complete his testing programme at the Spanish circuit as the car will not be able to be fixed in time for Friday.

"Lewis is uninjured but the MP4-22 he was driving is badly damaged and will not be repairable in Valencia for Lewis to continue his test programme tomorrow," a McLaren spokesman said.

"The cause of the accident is being investigated."

Hamilton's smash came after 33 laps on the second day of McLaren's running at the Ricardo Tormo circuit, which is its first serious test with the MP4-22.

The Briton, preparing for his F1 debut in Melbourne in March, had set a best lap of 1m12.596s, with team-mate Fernando Alonso 0.9s quicker on a 1m11.698s after 76 laps.

The double world champion will now complete the team’s programme in the other MP4-22 on Friday.

[Donney]

It's good to know he's OK.

[sams]

Alonso will be worried when his car will press the self-destruct button.

I assume that lewis didn't make a mistake and crash was due to some mechanical failure. Irrespective of mistake or a failure lewis confidence would have been shattered by now.

Why can't maclaren produce reliable car.

[Scuderia ferrari]

Well, nice to know Lewis is okay, but it's true testament to mclaren's crap cars. It suprises me that Fia let this load of dangerous junk race in the first place...year after bloody year.

[luvracin]

Well, nice to know Lewis is okay, but it's true testament to mclaren's crap cars. It suprises me that Fia let this load of dangerous junk race in the first place...year after bloody year.

FACT 1 : Hamilton crashed, see Mclaren press release.

FACT 2 : We DO NOT KNOW what caused the accident.

Let's stick to the facts before making wild statements.

Oh hang on, I've forgotten where I am.......

[Knock-on]

FACT 1 : Hamilton crashed, see Mclaren press release.

FACT 2 : We DO NOT KNOW what caused the accident.

Let's stick to the facts before making wild statements.

Oh hang on, I've forgotten where I am.......

Quite agree.

We do not know what caused this crash. It may have been driver error or a failure but it happened.

Lewis is a professional and I hope he will be ready to get into the car and give it 100% asap.

McLaren have a huge heritage and to say they build crap cars just shows ignorance of the sport.

[Ian McC]

Oh hang on, I've forgotten where I am.......

:rotflmao:

Exactly! :D

[futuretiger9]

I don't think that we should write either McLaren or Lewis Hamilton off on the basis of this incident. The youngster is made of steely stuff, and Ron Dennis has a pretty good record in terms of getting it "alright on the night".

[VkmSpouge]

Everyone has crashes, rookies more than most. Good thing Hamilton is alright.

[samuratt]

It is nice to hear he is ok, but i bet you he is very pissed off because he hasn't got a car to test on friday...

That reminds me when i was a child and I was given a brand new toy. Two hours later the toy was broken (in this case it was my fault ;) ) and I cried because i could not use it anymore!!!! :D

[BeansBeansBeans]

Well, nice to know Lewis is okay, but it's true testament to mclaren's crap cars. It suprises me that Fia let this load of dangerous junk race in the first place...year after bloody year.

I might be wrong, but I can't think of one driver to have been killed or seriously injured in a McLaren Grand Prix car.

Can anybody else?

[BriannaBee]

I might be wrong, but I can't think of one driver to have been killed or seriously injured in a McLaren Grand Prix car.

Can anybody else?

Mika Hakkinen was nearly killed at the Australian GP in 1995.

[BeansBeansBeans]

Mika Hakkinen was nearly killed at the Australian GP in 1995.

Correct, I'd forgotten about that. Hardly validates Scuderia's claim that McLaren make death traps though does it?

[BriannaBee]

Correct, I'd forgotten about that. Hardly validates Scuderia's claim that McLaren make death traps though does it?

Especially considering that Mika's crash was caused by a tire failure and not a car failure.

[ArrowsFA1]

Oh hang on, I've forgotten where I am.......
:laugh: :up: :s mokin:

[Big Ben]

Well, nice to know Lewis is okay, but it's true testament to mclaren's crap cars. It suprises me that Fia let this load of dangerous junk race in the first place...year after bloody year.

Thanks God he didn´t brake his legs... (like Schu did some years ago in a crap Ferrari...) or even worse... take off with the seat...

[Hawkmoon]

Ron told Hamilton not to drink. :D

[K-Pu]

Well, this is funnier in Spain, qhere newspapers have rushed to kill Hamilton. They try to "say" that the accident was his fault, and he has destroyed a car 5 minutes after joining the team. And that new is just before the one of "Ferrari, in which is Raikkonen, have serious trouble". Spanish F1 press is pure bull****...

First of all, everybody crashes in F1. In fact, one of the greatest crashers (because he had a lot of them) was Michael Schumacher! And there´s nothing wrong with that. The more you race, the more accidents you´ll have because you´re exposer to that risk. If Hamilton crashes, nothing important because he´s ok. But for the Spanish press is a boom. And people start saying things like "De La Rosa would have done it better, they should have put him in the car instead of that "whoknows". And just after that they say that Ferrari have had an engine failure, and inmediately people start bashing Raikkonen. Well, nobody stopped for a while and read the entire new, because the problem was with Massa´s car, and it wasn´t a bang and the car stopped, as press says here... Massa heard a strange noise and stopped the car.

Translation: Here in Spain people usually don´t know a **** about F1, and they have started to follow it because of Alonso´s success. Only the true fans here remember that Alonso drove a Minardi in 2001, that De La Rosa was making the impossible when earning points with Jaguar... And people don´t know that there are other teams, and "the-team-where-Alonso-is" is not the "truly-good-F1-team". How many people will buy Alonso´s cap only to "be cool"...

Maybe it´s a bit off-topic, but I had to say it :S

[andreag]

I might be wrong, but I can't think of one driver to have been killed or seriously injured in a McLaren Grand Prix car.

Can anybody else?
Apart from Mikka accident (fortunately not too serious), McLaren record is clean of fatal crashes.

Here's the list on GP weekends and test sessions:

September 18, 1953. Charles de Tomaco (Belgium) - Modena Autodrome Test. Ferrari.
July 31, 1954. Onofre Marimon (Argentina) - German GP qualifying. Maserati.
March 14, 1957 Eugenio castellotti (Italy) - Modena Autodrome Test. Ferrari.
July 6, 1958. Luigi Musso (Italy) - French GP. Ferrari.
August 3, 1958 Peter Collins (Britain) - German GP. Ferrari.
September 19, 1958 Stuart Lewis-Evans (Britain) - Moroccan GP. Vanwall.
August 1, 1959 Ivor Bueb (Britain) - Charade Circuit Test. Cooper.
June 19, 1960 Chris Bristow (Britain) - Belgian GP. Cooper.
June 19, 1960 Alan Stacey (Britain) - Belgian GP. Lotus.
February 17, 1961 Giulio Cabianca (Italy) - Modena Autodrome Test. Cooper.
September 10, 1961 Wolfgang Von Trips (West Germany) - Italian GP. Ferrari.
November 1, 1962 Ricardo Rodríguez (Mexico) - Mexican GP. Lotus.
August 2 1964 Carel Godin de Beaufort (Netherlands) - German GP qualifying. Porsche.
August 7, 1966 John Taylor (Britain) - German GP. Brabham.
May 10, 1967 Lorenzo Bandini (Italy) - Monaco GP. Ferrari.
August 14, 1967 Bob Anderson (Britain) - Silverstone Test. Brabham.
May 7, 1968 Mike Spence (Britain) - Indianapolis Test. Lotus.
July 7, 1968 Jo Schlesser (France) - French GP. Honda.
August 2, 1969 Gerhard Mitter (West Germany) - German GP qualifying. BMW.
June 7, 1970 Piers Courage (Britain) - Dutch GP. De Tomaso.
September 5, 1970 Jochen Rindt (Austria) - Italian GP qualifying. Lotus.
July 29, 1973 Roger Williamson (Britain) - Dutch GP. March.
October 7, 1973 Francois Cevert (France) - U.S. GP qualifying. Tyrrell.
March 30, 1974 Peter Revson (United States) - South African GP. Shadow.
October 6, 1974 Helmuth Koinigg (Austria) - U.S. GP. Surtees.
August 19, 1975 Mark Donahue (United States) - Austrian GP qualifying. Penske.
May 5, 1977 Tom Pryce (Britain) - South African GP. Shadow.
September 10, 1978 Ronnie Peterson (Sweden) - Italian GP. Lotus.
August 1, 1980 Patrick Depallier (France) - Hockenheim Test. Alfa Romeo.
May 8, 1982 Gilles Villeneuve (Canada) - Belgian GP qualifying. Ferrari.
June 13, 1982 Ricardo Paletti (Italy) - Canadian GP. Osella.
May 15, 1986 Elio de Angelis (Italy) - Paul Ricard Test. Brabham.
April 30, 1994 Roland Ratzenberger (Austria) - San Marino GP qualifying. Simtek.
May 1, 1994 Ayrton Senna (Brazil) - San Marino GP. Williams.

BY TEAMS:

Ferrari: 7.
Lotus: 5.
Cooper: 3.
Brabham: 3.
Shadow: 2.
Maserati: 1.
Vanwall: 1.
Porsche: 1.
Honda: 1.
BMW: 1.
De Tomaso: 1.
March: 1.
Tyrrell: 1.
Surtees: 1.
Penske: 1.
Alfa Romeo: 1.
Osella: 1.
Simtek: 1.
Williams: 1.

34 deaths is too much, but safety has improoved a lot in the last decade.

Let's hope this list will never grow.

[ArrowsFA1]

Well, nice to know Lewis is okay, but it's true testament to mclaren's crap cars. It suprises me that Fia let this load of dangerous junk race in the first place...year after bloody year.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/56485

It suprises me that Fia let... :uhoh:

[harsha]

well,Hamilton crashed the car,so it's a testament to Mclaren's crap cars :confused:

look at the number of times Michael Schumacher crashed his car during practises :?: does that mean that the ferrari is a crap car going by the statement posted by this guy......

[Knock-on]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/56485

It suprises me that Fia let... :uhoh:


Ahhhh, we reap what we sow ;)

A loaded keyboard without the fore-sight chip and hind-sight drive is a dangerous weapon, guaranteed to bite one on the bum.

:laugh:

[tinchote]

Gee, we need a race weekend so badly! :D

[Donney]

That's the best reply to this thread tincho :p

:up:

[Hondo]

I didn't know Hamilton was Japanese.

[jso1985]

can't wait till March and the Oz GP!

yeah yeah McLaren makes bad cars and Hamilton's crash as the absolute irrefutable proof :laugh:

[GridGirl]

well,Hamilton crashed the car,so it's a testament to Mclaren's crap cars :confused:

look at the number of times Michael Schumacher crashed his car during practises :?: does that mean that the ferrari is a crap car going by the statement posted by this guy......


I agree with your last statement. In the 15 plus GP's I've attended, I never saw anyone crash as much as I saw Schumacher did. Although, the only time I saw him crash during a GP was when he broke his leg. Crashing in practise means little. If and only Hamilton continues to crash when he's racing will be when I start to worry.

[jens]

Question.

When will common tests take place as so far teams have tested on different circuits alone? Can't wait for the common tests, that might give us the first signs what might be expected from future...

[tinchote]

Question.

When will common tests take place as so far teams have tested on different circuits alone? Can't wait for the common tests, that might give us the first signs what might be expected from future...

Absolutely! Then we can take the best lap out of a hundred for each car, and we can have overwhelming evidence of which car is better than others, irrespective of whichever configuration they had ;) :D

[Roamy]

If I understand it was wet. Going off in the wet with a rookiee is hardly reason for concern. The big thing is he is fine and Ron knows he will bend some **** up coming up to speed.

[raikk]

Quite agree.

We do not know what caused this crash. It may have been driver error or a failure but it happened.

Lewis is a professional and I hope he will be ready to get into the car and give it 100% asap.

McLaren have a huge heritage and to say they build crap cars just shows ignorance of the sport.


Knock-on +20! thank you for taking the words out of my mouth!

[jens]

Absolutely! Then we can take the best lap out of a hundred for each car, and we can have overwhelming evidence of which car is better than others, irrespective of whichever configuration they had ;) :D

Well, at least tests will give us hints. But it's our task to understand them correctly (which, alas, is often not done so). :)

[agwiii]

If I understand it was wet. Going off in the wet with a rookiee is hardly reason for concern. The big thing is he is fine and Ron knows he will bend some **** up coming up to speed.

Going off in the wet is rarely an indication of anything other than it was wet. Raikkonen and Massa had episodes in wet testing.

[Valentino Rossi Boy]

I heard on BBC that Lewis is okay and might come into the car vey soon. :)

[Erki]

I already see threads coming:

"Massa slide at Jerez :eek: "
"Kimi stumble at Fiorano :eek: "
"Giancarlo hiccup in Rome :eek: "
"Jenson fart at in-laws :eek: "

Gonna be interesting :s mokin:

[agwiii]

I already see threads coming:

"Massa slide at Jerez "
"Kimi stumble at Fiorano "
"Giancarlo hiccup in Rome "
"Jenson fart at in-laws "

Gonna be interesting :s mokin:

Erki - and at least one person will write that the "event" will mean that driver X cannot win, or will win, or ...

:beer:

[Erki]

..or has a "mechanical" fault. :erm:

Well, this is funnier in Spain, qhere newspapers have rushed to kill Hamilton. They try to "say" that the accident was his fault, and he has destroyed a car 5 minutes after joining the team.....Spanish F1 press is pure bull****

K-Pu, it's not limited to Spain.

The 'Daily Mail' in the UK had an article on Lewis Hamilton on Friday, in which it stated that Lewis had already beaten Alonso in a test before Christmas.

What they didn't mention was that Lewis had already had three days at that test in a car he had already had a few tests in and Fernando had, oh, about 10 laps in a car he'd never driven before.

[andreag]

Question.

When will common tests take place as so far teams have tested on different circuits alone? Can't wait for the common tests, that might give us the first signs what might be expected from future...
It's a matter of a couple of days; next week nine teams will test at Valencia.




If I understand it was wet.
No; it was not wet. Rain started about eight hours later.

[Ian McC]

I already see threads coming:

"Massa slide at Jerez :eek: "
"Kimi stumble at Fiorano "
"Giancarlo hiccup in Rome "
"Jenson fart at in-laws "

Gonna be interesting :s mokin:

Is Fiorano a nightclub? :D :p :

I can see that one on the front of a Finnish newspaper :rolleyes: