How Was Felipe Massa Injured?

Felipe Massa's accident in Hungary on July 25th will remain one of the unpleasant memories of the 2009 F1 season.

At the time of writing it is not known if Felipe will ever return to the sport, one can only hope so. He has been a likeable and popular driver, and there can be no doubt that every F1 fan wishes him well. Volte quando você está bem, Felipe.

Unfortunately, Felipe's injuries were quite severe.

The military hospital in Budapest where he was first treated revealed that he had suffered a brain contusion, fractures to his forehead and the base of his skull, and that bone fragments had been removed from around his left eye. Bruising and lacerations around his left eye were evident when he was lifted from the car, and he is to have a titanium plate fitted to cover a gap in his skull.

So how was Massa so badly injured?

That might seem a dumb question, for every F1 fan knows that a suspension spring came adrift from Rubens Barichello's car and subsequently struck Massa's helmet.

But again I ask, how was Massa so badly injured? Let's look at the sequence of events, referring to my screenshots composite.

In frame 1 we see the errant spring about to hit Massa's helmet. I think we can agree that Massa was uninjured at this stage.

Frame 2 shows the spring in close-up as it passes the camera after striking Massa's helmet. Was Massa injured at this stage? And if so, how?

Look at my title photo, the famous shot of Felipe being lifted from his wrecked car. The media narrative is that the spring made the helmet gouge we can see, and at the same time dislodged the visor from it's left-side fastening.

But did it inflict any injury on Felipe? If that spring had actually struck him where we see his injuries the eye would surely have been destroyed. And as neither the helmet or visor were penetrated, it seems improbable that the spring made contact with the driver's face.

Here's my tiresome question again. How was Massa injured?

Returning to the screenshot composite, in frames 3 and 4 the car is out of control and heading for a tyre barrier.

Clearly, Massa was stunned by the impact on his helmet, but he was braking, and that may have saved his life.

In frame 5 we see the crucial moment. As the car hits the tyre barrier Massa's head is thrown forward and strikes the steering wheel.

That is precisely what should not have happened, and I suspect that is the moment serious injuries were sustained.

In frame 6 Massa's head has snapped back again, the damage is done.

Many racing drivers have died because their heads were thrown forward in a crash and they suffered basilar skull fractures. Among the grim list of fatalities are Roland Ratzenberger and Dale Earnhardt.

To prevent such injuries the HANS (Head And Neck Safety) Device has long been mandatory in F1 and all top-level motor racing.

Here I quote from Wikipedia: The purpose of the device is to stop the head from "whipping forward" in a crash, without otherwise restricting movement of the neck.

So why didn't it work for Felipe?

The spring coming off Barichello's car was an unfortunate occurrence, but such things can happen.

For the spring to then strike Massa's helmet was as bizarrely unlikely as being struck by lightning on your birthday, but it should not have threatened a man's life.

What followed seems to have been a major failure of F1's driver safety systems. Yet eight weeks after the accident it has been largely unremarked upon, and the motor racing world is content for the public to think Felipe Massa was severely injured by a flying spring.

I find that very strange.

Thanks for reading, please let me know what you think.