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Engineer Toso, what was the dynamic of the
accident involving Dario Franchitti? Why did
the car take off?
«Due to problems with vehicle trim, caused
by worn tyres, Sato lost control of his car and
decelerated suddenly. Franchitti was right
behind, travelling at top speed, and made
contact with him. The rear "wheel guard"
absorbed part of the energy, deforming and
shattering into a large number of fragments.
The contact caused Sato to slew and slow
down even further, widening his trajectory
towards the outside of the curve and the
outer wall; at this point Franchitti had
nowhere to go, and could not avoid driving
into him. The difference in speed between the
two cars, estimated at approximately 20-30
km/h, is very significant indeed when one
takes into account an absolute speed of 180
km/h and the mass of the car. It is worth
remembering that, in the two years since it
has been introduced, the "wheel guard" has
always fulfilled its function perfectly in the
event of light contacts between two cars with
a similar relative speed, i.e. during hazardous
wheel-to-wheel overtaking manoeuvres.
Franchitti’s single-seater was catapulted
against the safety fence: one of the old
generation of cars, either a Champ Car or an
Indycar, would probably have reared up and
taken off at this point. In this case, however,
the car lifted off the ground due to the
impact, but did not take flight and, following
an extremely violent impact with the fence at
over 180 km/h, in which it dissipated
approximately 1 million Joules of energy, it
touched down again, without turning over.
This “stable” behaviour is the consequence of
the shape of the bottom, which was designed
by Dallara to produce a stabilizing
aerodynamic effect in the event of skewing,
and to generate the majority of the ground
effect at the rear, so that even in the event of
a loss of load front end, the car does not lose
all its down force».
Have you established whether there was any
anomaly in the way the car reacted, or
whether it was simply bad luck?
«The investigations were carried out
immediately and in accordance with the
American legislative process: all the data on
the table, maximum collaboration and
common search for the truth. After a few
days we received Indycar’s sincere
compliments. No other covered wheel
competition car could have performed better.
I believe the Dallara IndyCar sets the
benchmark for safety for all the covered
wheel categories, both in Europe and in the
United States».
What useful information have you gathered
from the incident? Does it give you the
chance to modify any aspects of the car?
«Our decision to impose a chassis
construction with aluminum ribs and anti-
intrusion panels that protect the entire space
from the foot well to the fuel tanks
compartment laterally is a fundamental
factor in protecting the driver and the fuel.
There’s no going back on this decision».
It was the consequences for the spectators
that had the greatest impact on public
opinion: could the safety conditions at
American circuits be improved? Some
commentators have suggested that the
safety fences were inadequate.
«I can’t really comment on this. If there’d
been a concrete wall or a pre-tensioned safety
fence complete with steel cables, instead of
those fences, the car would have been thrown
back onto the track, without losing any of its
speed, and the impact with other cars,
bridges or fixed structures might have been
fatal. The fences must deform in order absorb
the car’s kinetic energy and, in fact, the safety
fence poles were badly deformed, but they
didn’t break. And the cars take that curve at
top speed. The grandstand will probably be
moved in the future so that it is positioned
inside the curve. However, there will always
be a very fine line between giving the
spectators the thrills and spills that they pay
to see, and protecting them from the very real
and serious risks that are a consequence of
those same thrills».
In general, what are the areas where it is
possible to implement measures to improve
safety, and what are the areas where it is
inevitable that problems will arise in the
event of an accident?
«One area where we are working together
with Indycar is to reduce the risk of drivers
breaking their wrists in the event of an
accident: at the moment, the brake and
clutch controls are positioned on the steering
wheel, and the driver instinctively tries to
keep his hands on the wheel; however, when
an accident occurs and the car impacts the
safety barriers, the steering wheel ma “goes
haywire” and the driver cannot hold onto it.
We may include a shock absorber in the
steering column as earlier as 2014».
What was Franchitti able to tell you about
the incident?
«Dario was very grateful, and offered his
sincere thanks. I’ve known Dario Franchitti
for over ten years, and we both sit on the
same Campionato Indycar Championship
technical commission. Over the years, Dario
has grown increasingly shy and apparently
withdrawn in his relationship with the media
and journalists in general. I would stress the
word “apparently”. In private, Dario is a
gentleman, and a gentleman never talks too
much. Dario has had to deal with unexpected
levels of popularity due to his marriage to the
famous actress, Ashley Judd, and his success
in the latter part of his professional career.
Fame has hardened him, and left him with a
healthy cynicism for the kind of personal
success that is frequently little more than the
product of circumstances. Dario will never
forget the terrifying incidents he has been
involved in over the years: Kentucky and
Michigan in 2007 with the Indycar, Talladega
in 2008 in Nascar, and now Houston in 2013.
He’s had to make more than his fair share of
public statements about safety, the fragility of
life and heroism, and on this occasion he
preferred to make a private phone call to
Engineer Dallara to express his thanks. At
that point I was sure that, thanks to the
prudence and sense of tranquility serenity
that come as the result of a full and
rewarding life, he would have called it a
day».
Stefano Semeraro
