Henry Surtees

[Keeper of The Kitten]

Tragic news.

Nothing more needs to be said.

[rotoryboy]

Rip

[Rusty]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8159974.stm

Not seen that, sad news. A stark reminder that although motorsport has got increasingly safe in recent years, it's still inherently dangerous.

[s2driveruk]

yeah a freak and sad loss. RIP

[S2central.net]

Now THAT is seriously unlucky - what a waste of such a young upcoming talent - the footage is on youtube - had to view it a few times to really understand WTF happened.

[Keeper of The Kitten]

Bear in mind this is essentially a new chassis (Williams F2, powered by Audi) and I would usually expect that tethers are installed, but you cannot vouch for every potential component failure in an impact - it is cruel luck, this probably hasn't happened since the dreadful Tom Pryce accident in 1977 when the marshall's fire extinguisher struck him.

What it does show is that open cockpit race cars can never be 100% safe. When Alboreto died in the R8 testing on the same day we were testing our Speed 8, the incident was near identical to one that befell Van De Poele in an earlier EXP Speed 8, which was survived, due in no small part to the closed cockpit. It is nigh on impossible to enclose the driver any more than already enclosed, this simply has to be put down to unfortunate timing.

[UrS4boy]

... this simply has to be put down to unfortunate timing.

Agree but you have to wonder about predetermined destiny and all that since a few milliseconds before or after was all he needed to not be clipped by that bouncing wheel.

I imagine he neither saw the wheel or felt the impact. Probably broken neck = instant out. Very sad and very scary.