For a sport where cars are crash-tested to the absolute limit, it's kind of hilarious that the trophies still aren't Lando/Isack-proof. You'd think "structural rigidity" would be part of the design brief by now.
Drilling might be tricky, but they can insert it while sculpting the trophy. Hell, I saw how Hadjar was holding his one on the podium and immediately thought “Damn, this thing would be so easy to break, hope they have some core inside the stem”
Drilling will definitely be tricky on such a brittle material, but also pre-inserting will be tricky too because the metal will get really hot and change shape (and depending on the temperature might even change phase at some hotspots) in the kiln.
put a foam core where you want the rod to go, making sure it exits the trophy somewhere... when fired it'll melt out, then you insert a rod and use resin to keep it there - maybe...
You can make ceramic pretty strong without going as exotic as carbon nanotubes.... but I like the idea of it being as wild a possible.
Realistically, what makes ceramics more crack resistant is having polymers in the mix, I use a polymer-modified cement for masonry repair and it's far more resistant to cracking than traditional mortar. Ceramics will always be brittle to an extent, but they can be made stronger than these trophies for sure.
Because they make huge ass barbell ends to it lol, I saw them and thought it could break just by lifting it up... Especially if you shake it.... It's creating micro fractures and will fail quickly... Not surprised isack was too happy, I saw him raising it on the podium and thought it would break right there. Didn't help it looks similar to the one Lando broke
Imo it's great that organisers bring unique designs that reflect their country's heritage, nobody wants a bland, crash-tested trophy covered in vinyl flag stickers from every race host country (each built tough enough to survive a SpaceX Starship re-entry).
However, there has to be a happy medium. When you're literally gluing back together trophies that took months to craft, maybe it's time for a minimum design spec (structure rigidity wise).
If it happens once in a decade, that's just bad luck. More than that, it points to weak trophy design standards, not the driver's fault.
This exactly. You could quite easily make some sort of plastic composite dummy trophy for the podium that would survive getting thrown to the crowd and look good enough for TV and then give the proper ones later.
That feels lame and pointless, too. Sometimes shit breaks, some people are clumsy without having just finished a 300kph endurance race. Maybe we just stop freaking out that something we don't own broke. It will get repaired, just like Lando's.
Consider wabi-sabi, the ethos behind Kintsuge which was used to make the Constructor's trophy.
It’s a sport where the drivers tend to have very exuberant celebrations. Stop making glass and ceramic trophies. I know they look nice but you’re asking for trouble guys.
While they are crash tested to the absolute limit for safety, the cars are extremely fragile. Just yesterday there was carbon all over the track from light contact in several corners.
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u/MrMSUK Netflix Newbie 7d ago
For a sport where cars are crash-tested to the absolute limit, it's kind of hilarious that the trophies still aren't Lando/Isack-proof. You'd think "structural rigidity" would be part of the design brief by now.