The Macau Grand Prix’s street circuit is not to blame for a teen driver’s horrific crash on Sunday, her team boss said after the accident raised concerns about safety standards.
Seventeen-year-old Sophia Floersch’s Formula Three car catapulted spectacularly over safety barriers during the race, fracturing the Van Amersfoort Racing driver’s spine and injuring four others.
However, despite the horrifying crash, her team principle refused to blame the historic Macau circuit.
“I don’t think the accident was Macau-related,” Frits van Amersfoort told Autosport.com, saying that it could have happened on other tracks.
“We also race in Pau [in France] and F1 also races on all kinds of street circuits. Macau is a special track, everyone knows that,” Van Amersfoort said. “The contradiction is that everyone knows the dangers, but most drivers also say that Macau is the most beautiful track in the world. That indicates how strange it sometimes is.”
The 6.2km temporary circuit features long straights with speeds of about 275kph, coupled with tight, blind corners.
Three racers have died in Macau in recent years: motorcyclists Daniel Hegarty and Luis Carreira — last year and 2012 respectively — and Hong Kong driver Phillip Yau, also in 2012.
Charlie Whiting, race director for the International Motoring Federation, which is investigating the crash, also defended Macau.
“Macau is not a dangerous circuit,” Whiting said. “In common with all street circuits the incident rate is higher than a normal circuit, but there is no evidence to say that the circuit is dangerous.”
Investigators know the “initial cause” for Floersch’s loss of control, but it is too soon to say what caused the accident, Whiting added.
As with most urban circuits, the roads are narrow and there are few safety exits, leaving little room for error.
“However, where cars do hit the walls it is generally at a very low angle which imparts lower forces into the car and driver,” Whiting said. “The guardrails, crash barriers and debris fences have been systematically upgraded over the past few years with significant improvements in a number of areas.”
Floersch’s car lost wheels after a collision down a high-speed straight and then bounced off a curb, clipping Japanese racer Sho Tsuboi’s vehicle and flying backward into a hut housing media and officials.
The German underwent marathon surgery on Monday, but despite her ordeal, she has said she is determined to race again.
A team statement said her nerve functions are reacting well, and that it took doctors more than nine hours to repair Floersch’s fractured vertebra and remove a bone splinter, which was sitting dangerously close to her spinal cord.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their
RSS