Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today - Jalopnik Comments

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

FrankGrimes — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:33:21 EDT

Are my eyes deceiving me or was the drivers hands on the steering wheel the whole time?

FrankGrimes

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

LandofMinos,Top Gear Australia sucked, 2 out of 3 hosts MUST DIE — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:15:21 EDT

@NoneMoreBlack: @joshman:
The FIA need to seriously look to the future if they want to continue being the premier car race. I think this tech should be embraced.

LandofMinos,Top Gear Australia sucked, 2 out of 3 hosts MUST DIE

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

joshman — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:33:31 EDT

@LandofMinos: The FIA frowns upon such controls, at least in F1. Was it two years ago that flexi wings were all the rage? The rear wing especially would lay a bit flatter in high-speed wind to reduce drag (and increase speed) but perk right up for downforce in the medium and slow corners.

joshman

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Al Navarro — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:45:41 EDT

@RachelRayIsTheDevil:
Stay Classy....

Al Navarro

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Adplusone — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:08:37 EDT

If you can't pass them on the track....simply fly over them....

Adplusone

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Adplusone — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:07:05 EDT

Another example of the spectacular airborn rollovers don't hurt drivers....its the sudden stops that do.

Adplusone

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

PD to be — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:56:49 EDT

Photoshopped. Oh, wait...

PD to be

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

dominetta_vitali — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:44:48 EDT

kind of reminiscent of kubica's crash last year, except ortelli managed to miss a moving target.

dominetta_vitali

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Placebo — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:16:01 EDT

"Brake problems" are being reported. Like they lost the entire left side (at least the front), the right side 'bit' and turned him. Then, as a passenger, he hit a slight rise just off the track and became airborne. We've seen it before, where a slight bump just off the track serves as a curb and starts something very nasty. I'm glad that he came out of it so well, and I'm sure that the cleaners bill isn't much compared to the broken ankle or what could have been.

Placebo

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

FЯeeMan is slowly cЯawling out of the new commenting system — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:12:28 EDT

Props to McNish for not being hit? I don't think he had anything to do with the first miss, and by the time he went past the debris field, he was already slow and just threaded his way through the crap. Nothing against the guy, but I was expecting massive evasive maneuvering on his part - just kinda look like all the above mentioned gods from A to Z were smiling on him.

As far as Ortelli goes, I'm guessing he'll not be wearing that driving suit again. Ever. Some smells just don't go away.

Glad to hear he's OK, though.

FЯeeMan is slowly cЯawling out of the new commenting system

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

MenaceIISobriety — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:11:04 EDT

LUDICROUS SPEED!

MenaceIISobriety

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

RachelRayIsTheDevil — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 08:44:27 EDT

I want to sniff Danica's seat. Don't wanna sniff Ortelli's.

RachelRayIsTheDevil

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

SeanKHotay — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 08:43:21 EDT

Quite a shunt for both Ortelli & Kovaleinen. I was honestly worried for Heiki when I saw his crash...Shades of Senna for a while. Then I saw the see-thru McLaren on the hook.

And both walked away (so to speak).

@P161911: Yeah, but only by cutting not one but TWO corners. Shades of Fisi @ Monaco '05

@NoneMoreBlack: I was just going to bring that up...But that was 1977.

What about Jim Hall's 2J Vacuum Car driven by Sir Jackie and Vic Elford in 1970 Can-Am series?

SeanKHotay

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Bee1 — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:34:42 EDT

Pucker factor off the scale.... McNish is having his racing seat removed today after seeing what almost hit him.

Bee1

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

NoneMoreBlack — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 05:39:54 EDT

@LandofMinos: Active aero is already banned in F1. The famous Brabham BT46 "fan car" saw to that; everything on the car which serves an aerodynamic purpose must be fixed. I imagine other racing series have similar restrictions.

NoneMoreBlack

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

残心 — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 05:31:56 EDT

May I be the first to ask...what the hell was he doing? He was just cruising down the straight when he went completely squirrelly.

残心

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Kuang — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 02:33:27 EDT

@mwood10:

I thought they said Kovalainen's was a rim failure...

I would imagine Ortelli's rim went through some excitable moments around somersault 3. I know mine did, and I'm only watching it..

Kuang

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

sparksinner — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 02:32:12 EDT

There would be no shame in the driver of the Audi admitting he pissed his pants a little as the other car came within inches of his tail.

The real-time version of this does indeed show much better the severity of this crash.

Slo-mo = Goddamn, that's nasty
Real-time: HOLY FUCKING SHIT

Props to the engineers. They did their jobs well.

sparksinner

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Maxxofor — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 01:24:54 EDT

@Stuntdriver - Yes the Audi driver got lucky. Ortelli was blessed to be able to survive that.

Maxxofor

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

outttatheway — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 01:09:20 EDT

he missed that audi by mere centimeters, perhaps even a few milimeters!

i give it 6 flags, 5 holy shits, and 2 shittttts

outttatheway

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

LandofMinos,Top Gear Australia sucked, 2 out of 3 hosts MUST DIE — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:46:33 EDT

@Duphman2: Only at night

LandofMinos,Top Gear Australia sucked, 2 out of 3 hosts MUST DIE

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

turbofreak — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:20:07 EDT

@smokyburnout: What's shocking is the sound of the car crashing and tumbling across the track. That is somethin else.

turbofreak

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Unevolved 8.04 — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:03:51 EDT

Yeah, I think he did.

Unevolved 8.04

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

cargogh — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:48:04 EDT

@smokyburnout: Thanks for the additional footage. It sounded like one announcer said, "repray," instead of replay, which makes sense to me.

cargogh

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Stuntdriver — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:47:04 EDT

the audi driver gets all the + luck that ortelli didn´t have...

Stuntdriver

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

grzydj — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:46:17 EDT

He had to have missed that Audi by mere inches. I mean, seriously, inches. Wow.

grzydj

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

dwp — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:43:14 EDT

It was noted in Autosport recently that one of the ideas of the Overtaking Work Group for F1 was that they would allow cars to increase front wing angles when following another car to reduce the ill effects of being close to the car in front. not sure how you prevent a drive from running the higher downforce setting in other situations, but it would be fun to see them do it.

I was thinking that someone had been watching the Speed Racer previews a few too many times. it looks to be the first movie I'll actively seek out an IMAX theatre to see.

dwp

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

smokyburnout — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:31:39 EDT

@Shapeshifter: well, i imagine even if you could integrate things like rollcages and carbon fiber tubs into street cars without making them really heavy and expensive, you still probably wouldnt be able to convince people to wear 5-point seatbelts, helmets and HANS devices, which probably have more to do with today's racing drivers walking away.

then again, normal drivers aren't running into each other at 180 mph, so maybe they'd be ok...

smokyburnout

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Shapeshifter — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:17:56 EDT

@charles_barrett:

Amen to that.

I wish we could see some of these safety features trickle down into "real" cars. Isn't that half of the justification for motorsports?

We should make people homologate their safety features :)

Shapeshifter

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Number_Six — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:06:46 EDT

@UNÆVÒL\/ED: Point taken. It sounds shocking because the most I experience any given day is about 3Gs, when the Seoul city bus drivers brake as hard as they can to make old ladies fall over.

Number_Six

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Unevolved 8.04 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:00:59 EDT

@Number_Six: More than 25 Gs isn't that insane as it sounds. G-resistance is more dependent on time. A slap on the face is several hundred Gs, but 15 Gs sustained for a minute will kill a man. If it was near instantaneous, obviously it won't kill him.

Unevolved 8.04

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Number_Six — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:52:02 EDT

@charles_barrett: It's thought that Kovaleinen might have experienced more than 25Gs during his crash this weekend and ended up "mildly concussed." Wrap your engineer's mind around that. I might crash my car on purpose if I could walk away from that.

Number_Six

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Adamskiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiy — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:48:16 EDT

@Adamskiy: I should also read the comments above before posting >.<

Adamskiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiy

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Adamskiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiy — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:47:38 EDT

It's much more stunning at full speed, not slowed down as in the above video:

Adamskiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiy

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

GrimaceXL — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:47:01 EDT

@Duphman2: lol

GrimaceXL

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Number_Six — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:36:23 EDT

@smokyburnout: Was the second voice Super Dave Osbourne?

McNish ought to be thanking every god from Athena to Zoroaster.

Number_Six

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

P161911 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:29:42 EDT

He PASSED the Audi!

P161911

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

squelchBC — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:27:27 EDT

It is some kind of cross promotion with "Speed Racer"? "See real cars could do that flying around and stuff"

squelchBC

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

apexpredator — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:15:50 EDT

Well there are at LEAST two drivers here who shit a pair of bricks on this day. All of a sudden, two racers were an inch taller in the seats.

apexpredator

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Charles_Barrett - Now with Variable-Valve Timing — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:14:45 EDT

@Corvette_Thunder: No question in my mind, it is little short of miraculous, and as a technocrat I'm all in favor of it...

Charles_Barrett - Now with Variable-Valve Timing

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

smokyburnout — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:55:29 EDT

i downloaded a video of the live coverage of this (sorry, can't post that here) because to me it looked like, although it was a very big wreck, there weren't any particularly hard impacts... but it actually looks even more shocking at full speed.

/\
replay with full speed and onboard shot from the Audi

smokyburnout

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

cgates1 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:49:13 EDT

McNish is fully legit, if he was driving the Audi - an impressive way to avoid having your head taken off!

With respect to active aero, it actually has existed in various forms in racing history perhaps most famously in CanAm on a Chaparall. It was quickly banned...

I'm not sure if that's from the aero suddenly taking a dump.

One thing that's worth noting is that today's aero is pretty unstable - it's wing based much more than it has been historically, and thus is far more susceptible to turbulence. Watch some old GTP races, and you'll see 'em follow nose-to-tail with nary a twitch.

cgates1

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

smokeydog001 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:40:24 EDT

@Sean_Hannity_has_AIDS:

Either way, it was not a good day for the lad.

smokeydog001

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Sean_Hannity_has_AIDS — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:30:33 EDT

@mwood10: It was. The rim failed causing the tire to blow.

Sean_Hannity_has_AIDS

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

POLAЯ — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:28:15 EDT

Kinda reminds me of that movie where the Oreca jumps over the kid...

POLAЯ

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Corvette_Thunder — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:24:04 EDT

@charles_barrett: Between this, Mike McDowell's crash and Kubica you wonder how many of these guys would have survived their crashes 20 years ago. Goes to show you how safe the modern race car really is.

Corvette_Thunder

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

mwood10 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:22:52 EDT

@smokeydog001: I thought they said Kovalainen's was a rim failure...

mwood10

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

smokyburnout — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:22:12 EDT

i'm not sure if he even limped away, because from what i've heard he broke his ankle... then again, Dario was walking on a broken ankle after his NASCAR crash yesterday.

@LandofMinos: kind of like the pop-up spoilers on the Larborghini Murcielago/Bugatti Veyron/ bunch of other supercars, the pop-up air brake on the SLR McLaren, and so on? active aero might actually be an interesting alternative to the way too much aero-dependancy of current F1 cars and next year's cars with almost no aerodynamic aids...

smokyburnout

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

PatFromGundo — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:20:39 EDT

Something about the second camera angle was reminiscent of a video game crash, the kind where a player would say "There's no way I'd have survived if that had been real." Incredible that Ortelli did just that.

PatFromGundo

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

DoctorNine — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:14:06 EDT

I think this one deserves:

HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!

DoctorNine

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Charles_Barrett - Now with Variable-Valve Timing — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:56:11 EDT

The very fact that the event was survived by a human occupant simply staggers my mind. And I am an engineer...

Ain't technology wonnerful...

Charles_Barrett - Now with Variable-Valve Timing

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Tomsk — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:42:18 EDT

Holy. Crap.

Glad Ortelli's OK, but sadly, this probably means they'll stick a chicane at the exit of Parabollica (the last corner). Oh well.

@LandofMinos: Active aero? Not gonna happen in today's homogenized, dumbed-down, cost-control-über-alles motorsports climate.

Tomsk

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

NovaloadMissesPolar — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:39:26 EDT

It's amazing that in spite of all that, it lands on its wheels and he is sitting right where he was. Amazing engineering.
As for the Audi, I would love to know what that driver thought--I'm sure the last thing he expected to see was a racer on its hind leg coming at him like an ice skater.

NovaloadMissesPolar

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

smokeydog001 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:38:26 EDT

@Al Navarro:

At least Kovalainen's resulted from a blown tire. Ortelli just seems to have lost it.

smokeydog001

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

UDMan — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:34:16 EDT

It's amazing how well cars survive these types of crashes, and their drivers live to tell about it. I had to watch the clip several times to see how close they were.

UDMan

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

kentmx25 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:25:32 EDT

for me id bes saying what in the world was that and just stop in the middle of the road

kentmx25

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Duphman2 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:23:34 EDT

@LandofMinos: Good idea, but i have to ask. Are you high?

Duphman2

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

LandofMinos,Top Gear Australia sucked, 2 out of 3 hosts MUST DIE — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:18:42 EDT

I makes me think. What if race cars have active control on down-force. Imagine a car that can, in a split-second could change it's down-force characteristics so that it could have high speed on the straights and extra weight on the corners. Or even take off and land like a plane. It'll make passing a new art.

LandofMinos,Top Gear Australia sucked, 2 out of 3 hosts MUST DIE

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Duphman2 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:10:02 EDT

Jesus Christ the Audis are untouchable

Duphman2

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

voodoojoo — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:04:16 EDT

I can hardly believe how close that was. I just can hardly believe it.

voodoojoo

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

harumph — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:03:28 EDT

That comes across like some completely unbelievable choreography from a bad action movie. Holy shit!

harumph

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

OrangeBoss9 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:46:13 EDT

buff right out?

i'd be too busy going "oh crap" from both ends.

OrangeBoss9

Stephane Ortelli Walks Away From Spectacular Crash At Monza Today

Al Navarro — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:41:14 EDT

My older daughter watched this over my shoulder just now and asked "Is he alive?"

Wow. And I thought Kovalainen's crash today was bad.

Al Navarro