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pRo wrote:
Do you know what happens, when a wheel isn't tight and the tolerances are next to nothing? Apply some force to it, like in a fast corner, when the wheel is on the outside and it just might move enough to touch something, which can cause plenty of this and that
he'd done a lap and a half before the accident. i find it unreal that a wheel nut problem took that long to surface
The wheel wasn't loose when he left the pits. If it was, he would've noticed it right away. Instead it was not-tight-enough and worked itself loose during that lap and a half and finally gave up on that corner?
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I don't know how many of you are mechanics, but properly torquing a nut on a bolt actually stretches the bolt, creating a very strong tension that makes it difficult for the nut to come free. Same with a wheel nut on a spindle, it doesn't just hold the wheel firmly, it clamps it hard when the nut is torqued down. The locking mechanism is just there to keep the nut from coming completely off the spindle.
So it make sense how everything unfolded. The nut was secured, but the gun did not torque it hard enough. It took a lap and a half to loosen enough, but once the wheel got loose, the damage was immediate and severe.
G'day all, just got back from Greece (missed the British GP and European, but caught quali)
Watch the Hamilton crash very closely, I noticed that just before the wheel collapses he runs over a yellow spot in the road, a bump where the cars bottom out, and as he goes over it you can see the front go up and come down very slightly. Exactly the point it comes down something breaks from the inside of the wheel hub assembly!
I don't know exactly what but I am certain that bump was what caused the component to fail at that corner, although I'm sure it was faulty before.
Murphy's 9th Law of Technology:
Tell a man there are 300 million stars in the universe and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch to be sure.
