One bright sunny Saturday in Hungary, a white car with lime stripes was racing down the track. It is the Hungarian Grand Prix 2009. The driver, wanted to drive the best qualifying time to gain the highest possible spot for the following race on Sunday.
Suddenly, at turn 4, he felt a little judder. Something is strange just happened on his car. He did not know what it was but he was sure that his car handled badly from that moment. There was not enough traction at one of his wheels at the back. It couldn’t corner fast enough.
He pushed the radio button and asked his race constructor. He was told that one of his springs just bounced off from one of his suspension system.
That explains why the car wasn’t feeling good at all. A moment later, the race constructor radioed him again.
“Your spring got hit by Massa. He crashed into a tyre wall at turn 6. Yellow flags at turn 5 and 6.”
It was the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix 2009 when Felipe Massa hit the spring at speed 4 seconds after the spring fell off from Barrichello’s Brawn GP car.
***
Felipe Massa was at six place timing during the second qualifying session. On the following lap, he knew he need to drive faster and improve his time. Just after racing pass turn 4, there was a spring somewhere at the end of the following straight. At high speed, the spring was small and unnoticeable. The spring was bouncing along the straight.
Massa did not know. The spring was there for only 4 seconds after it bounced off from Barrichello’s car. It seemed as though even if a car hit it at speed, the car will only have some body damage.
But at this moment, it was a freak accident. As he drove at high speed down the straight, the bouncing spring hit Massa on the left part of the helmet. The spring weighed roughly 800grams. Massa’s head was travelling at more than 200kph with the car. His head, protected by the helmet, hit the spring at that speed.
Massa’s blacked out instantaneously. He suffered a concussion. His helmet, though rigorously tested and developed, failed to protect his head. It was heavily damaged on the left side. He fainted at the wheel. He never what happened after that.
***
Michael Schumacher was watching the replay of the crash. The commentator was telling that Massa hit the spring on his head at very high speed.
Through the replay, it showed that Massa simply fainted at the extreme force hitting his head. There was turn 5 and turn 6 as the end of the straight, a tight left turn quickly followed by a sharp right. It’s a chicane.
With Massa blacked out in that speeding car, his foot relaxed and pressed both brake and accelerator. The car went out of track, went straight pass the chicane and hit a tyre wall at the opposite end, left side of the track.
It wasn’t the direct crash into the wall that blacked out Massa. It was the spring.
Massa was flown to a nearby hospital, the military AEK hospital in Budapest by a helicopter without wasting anytime. The next race he won’t be able to participate. It was fortunate that the doctors could treat him in time. He suffered a fractured skull and brain concussion, as well as a gash on his forehead, and that he had undergone successful surgery on his injuries.
When he woke up, he did not know what happened. He could not open his left eye.
Ferrari contacted Michael Schumacher to replace Massa for the following races, but not for Hungarian Grand Prix.
After the Hungarian Grand Prix, it was confirmed that Michael Schumacher will be back at F1 racing, replacing Felipe Massa until he is fully recovered and fir to race again.
But for the time being, it is the Dominator. 7-time F1 World Champion, a record in F1 history. 91 race victories, 154 podium finishes, 115 pole positions, 1813 days of being a champion, the dominator of F1 for decades.
He has returned to F1 with a surprise. For the first time, the young champions will compete with the legend. Lewis Hamilton, youngest World Champion, Kimi Raikkonen, fastest F1 driver and world champion, Jenson Button, current F1 leader, Fernando Alonso, 2-time World Champion, Sebastian Vettel, youngest race winner and title contender.
All these fastest and talented F1 drivers are going to get the taste of scorching pace from the legend, Michael Schumacher.
F1 racing haven’t got interesting for a long long time…
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