why don’t you ever link to the sources of quotes

That’s a fair point, nik. Most of the time I receive such things via email, and they come either as PDF or HTML (I think that’s the correct term – a fancy looking email). However, as most stories are covered by a variety of news sites around the web, I could link back to one of these. Not all sites carry each part of the story though, so that may add confusion. I’ve never really bothered to see where the original statements and whatnot are published, but guessing they must be I’ll look further and see if I can in the future.

Yes, Burti’s incident went through my mind as well, as did many other incidents in the past. Thankfully Heikki’s okay and it is credit to the strength of the cars. I fear the tyre walls need some work though, as I briefly touched upon in a more recent post, but that’s another argument for another day.

The pillars, or winglets, or flappy wotsits probably don’t help with rear visibility, but I think the main issue is with the changing of their position. They used to be mounted from the side of the monocoque, but recently the teams have been fixing them to the top of the sidepod. This means the mirrors are being subjected to more vibrations, the sidepod not being so central and therefore not so ‘grounded’ as the driver’s cockpit. These vibrations, plus the actual movement of them, I think is causing them to become essentially redundant.

I’m sure Coulthard will have further more statements to make though, as it seems to be him who is suffering more than most. I’ve made an internal bookmark to think more about the mirrors in the future though, so maybe I can uncover some more details as to why they don’t appear to be working as well. You know, it really could come down to DC ignoring advice and not going to SpecSavers.

Great article, but may i question why there is an absence of expandable images since the redesign? I would appreciate witnessing Heikki’s mangled McLaren in greater proportion, however this is impossible.

Kovalainen’s incident sent shivers down my spine… it was shockingly similar to Burti’s huge impact at Spa early in the decade. In a cruel coincidence, i had previewed that very video clip only several days prior to this recent occurance. Furthermore, this is a testament to continual protection evolution, as only a handful of years have passed since the incident that effectively ceased Burti’s career.

There must be some form of regulation to improve rear visibility, as current universal standards are simply not acceptable at this level of competitive motorsport. Dare i say these constricting pillars are hindering more than helping?