F1 News
"The impact of Tsunoda's crash was not properly absorbed"
- GPblog.com
It was an eventful weekend in Imola. One of the high-profile events was Yuki Tsunoda's crash in the third free practice session, in which the rear of the car was completely shattered. Formula One journalist Craig Scarborough analyses the crash and explains what was so striking about the rear of the car.
"The interesting thing about the wreck was the way the rear broke," Scarborough says in a video on the YouTube channel of Peter Windsor. "On the back of the car is a system that is supposed to absorb the impact of a crash. The striking thing about this crash was that this system remained virtually intact, while the part with the gearbox broke first."
He continued: "That's not how it's supposed to work. If this impact system doesn't work and the gearbox breaks, then all the possible follow-up damage can hit the rear of the engine, which is in no way capable of withstanding the impact of a crash."
Scarborough explains that the diagonal impact caused the gearbox to take the brunt of the hits. In addition, the front crash test rules are different than the rear: At the front, the nose must be tested to make sure it can't fall off due to a too-light impact, but this rule doesn't apply to the rear.
So it comes down to the fact that if the car collides with the barrier in a deviating line, the damage is not always absorbed by the system intended for it, but rather by parts like the gearbox, or in even more serious cases, even the engine.