Verstappen fastest in Monza as Antonelli crashes on F1 practice debut

36 comments on “Verstappen fastest in Monza as Antonelli crashes on F1 practice debut”

1. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   30th August 2024, 13:50

   Antonelli will still become a full-time driver & merely an inevitable rookie error anyway, so zero harm done.
   Colapinto also had a tough wake-up call.
   1. 

      notagrumpyfan
      30th August 2024, 17:04

      Crashing and seeking the limit of grip are two totally different things.
   2. 

      Nick T.
      31st August 2024, 1:30

      Let me preempt, Simon.

      Word salad or some other nonsense.

      Kimi looks exciting. I can’t wait to see him in 2025.
      1. 

         Nick T.
         31st August 2024, 1:31

         Let me preempt Simon*

         Muscle memory of comma before a name caught me out.
2. 

   Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
   30th August 2024, 13:51

   Embarrassing for Antonelli, but that is all.
   It means, and changes, nothing.

   I do wonder if Logan Sergeant might have a wry smile to himself though ;)
   1. 

      Dane
      30th August 2024, 14:34

      At least Antonelli can take solace in being P1 before he went off. The couple laps he did he looked very competitive.
      1. 

         Esploratore (@esploratore1)
         30th August 2024, 15:09

         To make it clear (though you already know if you watched fp1), he was temporarily p1 early on, lost his p1 to hamilton and bottas before crashing out.
3. 

   Biggsy
   30th August 2024, 13:57

   I find it insulting towards Russell, that he is the one who has his car taken away from him – and subsequently crashed – when it is Lewis who is leaving and whom the 3rd driver (Antonelli) is needed for to replace in the first place. It’s disrespectful that they are disrupting Russell’s weekend, instead of Hamilton’s, when it’s Hamilton who is the cause of the need to assess the new driver.

   I’d be pretty miffed if I was George.
   1. 

      DB-C90 (@dbradock)
      30th August 2024, 14:07

      Each driver has to give his seat up for a rookie for at least 1 session.
      Hamilton will have to as well as Russell
      1. 

         Richard C (@rich156)
         30th August 2024, 14:11

         Exactly, Each driver takes a nominated turn to give up FP1 to a rookie. Each team is required to run a rookie in two FP1 sessions per season.
   2. 

      JOA20
      30th August 2024, 14:15

      I may be mistaken but Russell would’ve had to do it eventually. Across the season, each team has to field a driver in one of the first two free practice sessions who has not competed in more than two races, on two occasions, once for each car.
   3. 

      anon
      30th August 2024, 14:46

      As others have pointed out, every driver in the field is required to give one free practice session to a rookie driver during the season.

      It’s not “disrespectful” or “insulting” when it’s a basic regulatory requirement that has been in place since 2022.
   4. 

      Esploratore (@esploratore1)
      30th August 2024, 15:04

      I didn’t know about the rule mentioned below, but in principle fully agree with this.
      1. 

         David BR (@david-br)
         30th August 2024, 22:31

         @esploratore1 Even after learning about the rule? #facepalm
4. 

   norm79
   30th August 2024, 14:03

   So much so on golden child. Another over hyped driver
5. 

   someone or something
   30th August 2024, 14:08

   Why isn’t Antonelli included in the table? Was his first time deleted? I thought I had seen him set a time before crashing out. Bit odd to see his name mentioned a zillion times in this article alone, just not in the part that matters.
   1. 

      GS
      30th August 2024, 14:27

      I think just because the track got faster over the session and they didn’t want to list Antonelli with a time that was 6 seconds slower than the others.
      1. 

         Esploratore (@esploratore1)
         30th August 2024, 15:12

         As has been mentioned the time wasn’t anywhere near as slow as that, maybe they just didn’t want to make him look the slowest? Really strange they’re allowed to do that though. The time was never deleted, saw it standing even in the last seconds of fp1.
      2. 

         stefano (@alfa145)
         30th August 2024, 15:57

         6 seconds??? Where would you even have read that. Guy has a 1:23.9 which was 6 tenths of a second slower than Hamilton time at the time of the crash
   2. 

      Crawliin-from-the-wreckage (@davedai)
      30th August 2024, 14:28

      1:23.955 was recorded. No idea if it stands.
      1. 

         someone or something
         30th August 2024, 14:32

         According to the official classification on the FIA website, the time stands. Weird not to have it included here.
         1. 

            Jere (@jerejj)
            30th August 2024, 15:38

            Lap time invalidation only happens in competitive sessions.
            1. 

               someone or something
               30th August 2024, 16:58

               @jerejj
               That is incorrect, plain and simple.
6. 

   Alesici
   30th August 2024, 14:11

   Yet another accident involving a driver hitting their helmet on the halo*, and yet again I’m the only person to spot this and wonder whether something could be done, e.g. by widening that part of the halo and/or heightening the padding behind the driver’s eyeline. The latter improvement was implemented by Indycar about a year after I suggested this to them following Jack Harvey’s crash. But F1 complacently ploughs on blind.

   I noticed that Antonelli’s normal helmet position was very high relative to the padding, which increases the chance of a halo strike. It is surprising, as he’s 13cm shorter than George Russell. So Merc ought to address the seat fitting, if only to limit blockage of the airbox. There is a regulation that checks this height, but perhaps it should be slightly tightened. This crash was not as big as the previous incidents, so I had been surprised the halo strike occurred.

   * e.g. Leclerc in Saudi Arabia 2021, Jack Harvey in an Indycar oval 2022, Lance Stroll in Singapore 2023.
   1. 

      AlanD
      30th August 2024, 14:38

      I haven’t heard anything about this or seen any footage of such an incident. It could be a beneficial safety feature. If the driver’s head is thrown forward in a crash and it is not restrained by the halo, it has the potential to damage the neck when it reaches the end of travel. Quickly hitting a well-padded halo with a well-padded helmet might be preferable in those situations. As I said, I haven’t seen the incident you are referring to so I can only speculate, but I would find it hard to believe that the medical scientists would be unaware of this issue or simply ignoring it.
      1. 

         Alesici
         30th August 2024, 15:28

         I find it hard to believe too, but I know it’s happening…

         You raise a fair point. The HANS device does a great job of protecting from excessive forward movement of the neck, but doesn’t really work in side impacts like this. That is instead the job of the cockpit’s padding. But in this case the helmet mostly cleared the top of the low padding, leaving the helmet to instead hit the halo, which has so far never had any padding – its surface is very strong and stiff titanium alloy. So padding the halo might be worth considering instead of my suggestion to widen it. In either case, my other suggestion of heightening the cockpit padding behind the driver eyeline is a no brainer and is relatively easy, as demonstrated by Indycar.

         And I am not saying the current halo is a net negative. It has saved many lives, and this issue I raised hasn’t taken any. Yet.
         1. 

            AlanD
            30th August 2024, 16:33

            “my other suggestion of heightening the cockpit padding behind the driver eyeline is a no brainer and is relatively easy,”

            Years and years ago they introduced rules to increase the height of the padding to the side of the driver’s head and I remember drivers at the time complaining it would reduce their head movement, reduce their visibility, etc, none of which happened, of course. So from the way you have described it, I am a little surprised, and it sounds more like the car/driver combo wasn’t correct rather than an intrinsic fault in the halo.

            I have since watched the videos on youtube and I’m not sure there is a problem. Did anyone actually say he hit his head on the halo or are you assuming this from the in-car footage. It may have been that the padding was doing its job and stopping his helmet a millimeter or two short of a hard impact on the halo. I really don’t think you can know just by looking at the footage.
   2. 

      DaveW (@dmw)
      30th August 2024, 15:21

      Good spot. I would think from an engineering and simulation point of view it’s really hard to strike a balance between avoiding a halo strike and allowing motion of the driver/HANS to dissipate energy. And a 45G impact might just be off the graph in that analysis.
      1. 

         Alesici
         30th August 2024, 15:34

         If the helmet is mostly clearing the top of the cockpit padding, then it is no longer effectively dissipating the energy, and just leaving the halo to deal with it in the worst way – with near zero deflection.
   3. 

      Sumedh
      30th August 2024, 15:44

      The helmet seems to be hitting the raised sidewall part of the halo. That sidewall has been raised since 2007 or 2008 and pre-dates the halo. So, we shouldn’t blame the halo for this hit.

      Plus, I am sure FIA must have done the tests back in 2006 regarding this, checked the helmet cushion and only then raised the sidewall
      1. 

         AlanD
         30th August 2024, 16:40

         Sumedh, I think you are right. From the video I’ve seen, I don’t think the helmet is hitting the halo. I think the side-padding was doing its job. It is still a very violent accident and the drivers head is shaken from side to side, so perhaps there is a case for even more side padding, but I don’t see anything which says they need to pad the halo.
         1. 

            Alesici
            30th August 2024, 20:02

            My findings are based purely on my eyeballing the in car replay with a lot of pausing of the video. There is just a single frame that shows it, with the 2 on the top of his helmet occluding the halo. The 52G data supports my case, assuming that was measured by the accelerometers in the driver’s earplugs. Based on the movement of the car in the impact, the car’s deceleration didn’t look nearly as high as 52G to me.

            In fact I’ve never seen or heard anyone ever discuss the halo impact topic apart from in response to my previous posts here on it. After 3 years of them, I find that weird. The 2026 regs present a great opportunity to address this, but that chance is slipping away.

            I got a reasonably good look at the helmet after he got out, and couldn’t see any marks, nor any on the halo. Maybe his helmet stopped 2mm short of the halo, but it’s not possible that it was any more than 2mm, so that is simply too close, particularly with this being far from the most violent crash we’ve seen.

            It’s hard to say whether he impacted the main cylindrical part of the halo or its flat vertical support beneath it. I don’t what that part is made of, as it could be a structural support or an aerodynamic tweak. I think it’s mandated to be identical on all cars, which makes me think its structural rather than for aero. That would make it titanium too.

            Sumedh is wrong to say that that halo support pre-dates the halo. The part that was raised around 2006 was the cockpit padding, obviously in addition to the support that holds that padding. Until the halo was added, nothing ever protruded above the height of the padding, making it extremely unlikely for the helmet to hit the padding’s support, as the padding would get in the way. Now, the unpadded halo and its support protudes vertically above that padding support.

            Antonelli said it was 52G and that he ‘was not feeling super well so will try to get some rest’. It’s tricky to diagnose head injuries in-situ straight after an impact, as swelling takes time, so I hope they consider voluntarily sending him for a brain scan, particuarly as he’s probably out of contention for the F2 title.
7. 

   Bruno
   30th August 2024, 14:26

   Yeah, i agree.
8. 

   Leo B
   30th August 2024, 16:18

   As usual Perez is nowhere.
   1. 

      SteveP
      30th August 2024, 16:52

      As usual Perez is nowhere.

      FP1 – FP3 are often unrepresentative, but if you want to treat them as such, then do note that Perez is as I write P14 and Verstappen is P13 with just 0.068 between them.

      Wait for the race, or the very least qualification, before the criticism – it will probably be valid then.
      1. 

         Melbourne '96 (@melbourne-96)
         30th August 2024, 20:09

         Verstappen on medium, Perez on soft…

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