Crash course

The Star

12-05-2025

IT is inevitable in Formula One, where drivers compete at over 320kph, that sometimes they are going to crash into the barriers. What is impressive is how fast a wreckage is repaired.
'It tends to always be controlled carnage, depending on how big the accident is,' Ollie Middleton, the No. 1 mechanic for Carlos Sainz of Williams, said in an interview.
Crashes during a race can end in a failure to finish, but if they happen during practice or qualifying, teams must undertake a repair job.
Mechanics have to repair a damaged car inside the team's pit garage, but the actual job begins almost as soon as the car hits the barriers.
Alpine sprang into action at last month's Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, when driver Jack Doohan crashed just minutes into the second practice session.
Red Bull crew changing the front wing during the Grand Prix of Miami on May 1. — AFP
'We've got the TV feed, it was very clear at Suzuka, it was a mess,' Rob Cherry, the Alpine race team manager, said in an interview.
'From watching a replay it was quite obvious what we'd need to do. We also have a lot of sensors on the car that show the loads, on the suspension, the G-force the chassis has seen, that's the data-driven side, so we begin making assessments based on that.'
Mechanics will prepare the required spare parts – teams bring backup parts to Grands Prix – and a visual inspection once the car is back in the garage will provide more detail.
'We can see on the data if something has gone over its strain limit,' Middleton said.
'It's a different story when the car comes back and you physically see the damage, if you see the radiators are crushed. Then it's a 15-minute detailed plan, you pick your decision and go for it.'
For Doohan's accident, Alpine brought a spare chassis from their storage in a freight container to the pit garage, and the mechanics got to work, the team having received the required approval from the sport's governing body, the FIA, to make the chassis swap.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen in the pit lane after he collided with Mercedes' Andrea Kimi Antonelli in Miami on May 3. — AFP
Doohan's car, the A525, was equipped with a new front wing, new rear wing, floor, bodywork, gearbox, suspension components and exhausts, though the power unit was intact and fit for continued use.
The repair was completed in around eight hours, and the car was ready for the final practice the next day.
'People just jump in, it's not headless chickens running around doing anything, people know their limits, but they can offer a hand,' Cherry said.
'Maybe it's sweeping the broken carbon and gravel off the floor; it all helps. And no one has to ask, it's very smooth and flowing.'
The team can then gradually attach the new components.
When a car sustains structural damage, 'It is a whole new ballgame,' Middleton said.
'The best way to describe it is you're working between people's legs, you might be bolting on a lower wishbone while someone's repairing a fairing, it can be pretty intense. We take a step back, none of us are talking, we know exactly what's going on at each time.'
It will be clear to mechanics that some components are beyond repair, but other less-damaged parts could still, in theory, return to use.
'We put scrap in one box, then there's another box where things are visually OK, but had an overload or needed further checks,' Cherry said.
'It goes to the factory, there's various sign-off processes, then signed out of quarantine by an engineering lead in the factory to say they're happy and it can return to track for use. In days gone by, parts would have been written off, but in a cost-cap era it's different, and the value of the material is higher, you can't just get rid of it.'
Location and timing also influence the task for mechanics. Crash damage is usually higher at a street track, where logistically getting a damaged car back swiftly can be tougher because of fewer access roads.
A driver crashing when there is a short turnaround time between sessions also heightens the stress.
'The highest pressure is between third practice and qualifying as it's a short window, and if you don't qualify you're at the back,' Cherry said.
'We did have a driver, a long time ago, Vitaly Petrov, who had a habit of coming unstuck and had a real talent of doing it in third practice, where there are only two hours to prepare the car before qualifying. He'd go out, the car would be destroyed. I think he took three corners off the car in China: the floor's damaged, the bodywork, the wings, we'd had an air-box fire in the engine, it was a mess.'
The team, though, fixed the car in time for qualifying, and it is those situations where the camaraderie comes through. — NYT