I agree completely. Also, if the first place he was observed as having a
loose engine cover was in the Corkscrew, or even at turn 7, the first
place he could have been given a meatball was at Start/Finish. That means
he would have to continue around the track again to get to the exit, which
is near turn 10. There's no practical way to stop one car on the track. A
red flag might do it, but there may not have been an obvious reason to
take such a drastic measure, i.e. stopping all the cars, at that point.
Carl would only have pulled off if he knew there was something seriously
wrong with his car. He might not have had the visibility in his mirrors.
All he might have known is that the car was sluggish. The rear visibility
in a F1 car is very limited.
Now, if he was given a meatball at Start/Finish and he was still going at
racing speed when the incident occurred, then there is reason for driver
consultation. There's still no reason to blame the corner workers. If the
Corkscrew workers radioed in that he was flapping, he surely got the
meatball at Start/Finish. It sounds more like bad luck that it came apart
in just the place to cause a shunt.
That being said, there are sometimes things that can be done. I was behind
a FVee in SCCA Drivers School that was "well and truly on fire" to quote
Grand Prix. The corner workers were running toward pit wall shaking fire
bottles at the hapless driver, who promptly pulled over by the drag strip.
This was in Turn 11 at Sears, where there is a corner worker, and just
before the front straight, where the black flag station is. I was behind
this mess pointing frantically at the little buzz bomb in front of me...
Chris Kantarjiev wrote:
>
...
>
> Speaking as a corner worker ... what, exactly, do you expect a corner
> worker to *do* to "stop him before the accident"? There is no flag that
> says "stop, you're being an idiot", much as we might like to have one.
> The closest thing is a mechanical black (meatball), and there's not a
> lot that can be done if the driver is "looking down at his gearshift"
> as he goes by the black flag station (start/finish and T7 at Laguna).
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