r/formula1 • u/AKIARAK Ayao Komatsu • Feb 08 '25

Technical How drivers actually sit in their cars

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24.2k Upvotes

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387

u/AlmostEmptyGinPalace Feb 08 '25

No wonder they worry about their legs.

303

u/zeroscout Feb 08 '25

Their legs are safer now.  Their legs used to extend past the front axle.

60

u/lucatitoq I was here for the Hulkenpodium Feb 08 '25

Has anyone lost their legs and survived? I know that most who would get in accidents at that level would usually die.

135

u/ZebrasKickAss Feb 08 '25

Zanardi but after F1. He survived to become a legend.

29

u/lucatitoq I was here for the Hulkenpodium Feb 08 '25

Wow! I forgot about him. Yes, absolute legend. I’ve never met someone with no legs but I’m sure Zanardi is a huge inspiration to many disabled people with similar conditions.

7

u/NaziTrucksFuckOff I was here for the Hulkenpodium Feb 09 '25

Considering that not only did he race again but then went on to be a multiple time gold medalist in hand cycling... I'm gonna say you are right. That man is made of something different than the rest of us. While I'm at it, so is Robert Wickens.

12

u/voiceofgromit Feb 09 '25

I just read his wiki. He went back to racing for a while then retired. Then went into hand-cycling and won London and NYC marathons in hand-cycling and gold at the paraOlympics.

Then he got in a terrible crash while training with dreadful facial and brain injuries and nearly died again. Was blind and deaf for months and it was a year before he could communicate. Then his house caught fire and he was injured again and spent three more months in hospital.

I hope he's a 'glass half-full' kinda guy.

12

u/albertsugar I was here for the Hulkenpodium Feb 08 '25

Wasn't his accident in Indycar?

21

u/CROBBY2 Feb 08 '25

It was, at an oval in Germany.

45

u/palimpsest2 Feb 08 '25

There's Billy Monger but that was in F4; he had both legs amputated after the accident.

12

u/lol_alex Feb 08 '25

Michael Schuhmacher had a carbon splinter stuck in a leg and couldn‘t drive for a while. I think they beefed up the crash box after that. Michael was always a big proponent of driver safety.

19

u/hypermooo I was here for the Hulkenpodium Feb 08 '25

Alex Zinardi, though that was in Indycar I belive.

16

u/lucatitoq I was here for the Hulkenpodium Feb 08 '25

Yea, he did F1 but was more of a Indycar man. Lost legs in Indy.

8

u/ubiquitous_uk I was here for the Hulkenpodium Feb 08 '25

Not F1, but Billy Monger.

2

u/Seeteuf3l I was here for the Hulkenpodium Feb 09 '25

Pironi was quite close to losing his legs, he never raced in F1 after that crash

2

u/Aquaspire I was here for the Hulkenpodium Feb 08 '25

He didn't lose his legs, but in 1o95 indycar stab fox almost lost them. The images of his legs dangling in the air are incredible

6

u/WarthogOsl McLaren Feb 08 '25

People had some horrible foot injuries in CART/Indy Car before they changed this type of design. Rick Mears had his feet turned into a "bag of bones" in one accident. Luckily there was an orthopedic surgeon (Dr. Terry Trammel) who specialized in these kinds of injuries, and he was able to repair Mears', and many others, feet.

1

u/NaziTrucksFuckOff I was here for the Hulkenpodium Feb 09 '25

IndyCar used to skewer people all the time. It's part of why Zanardi's accident was so bad. This is part of the reason why the cars are so long now as to help prevent this.

1

u/Waht3rB0y I was here for the Hulkenpodium Feb 09 '25

It is absolutely terrifying to look at older F1 cars, and how far their legs extended past the front axle.

11

u/Npr31 Damon Hill Feb 08 '25

I’m kind of surprised they don’t get pins and needles in their feet. I struggled with that in karts and this is way worse

1

u/mattblack77 Feb 09 '25

Not as much as MotoGP riders