F1technical.net

I had hoped that someone else had seen this about a week ago , and would start a thread , but as no one has , here goes

this interview was recorded before stirling's trip down a lift shaft ; the interviewer [ actually it was more of a conversation ] was one richard hammond , generally known as the hamster [ he is racing driver sized ] ,a journalist who's day job is appearing in the most popular motoring programme on british TV

the raison d'etre was what they had in common , a big accident in which they suffered a serious brain trauma , stirling's is probably known to most of you , hammond's occurred when driving a jet powered car down a runway ,and a tyre failed at over 300mph , the car rolling into a ball

in both cases it was uncertain that they would survive , and both were in a coma for a month for so

apologies to the mods if this is in the wrong place !

what was interesting to me was how much they had in common , despite the huge difference that you would expect from their chosen careers [ hammond tried to drive a F! car once , described it as completely impossible ...for him ]

first thing that came out was that , in the event , neither had any fear whatever of being killed , when they came round question one was , what happened , did I do something wrong ? in hammonds case the car had a parachute to slow it , he wanted to know if he had pulled the lever ? he had , but sideways at 300+mph it didn't deploy ..similar story regarding mika hakkinen when he fractured his skull , fortunately with no real brain damage , came round after 24 hours ,and promptly asked ...did I make a mistake ?[ he didn't ]

stirling said that what he loved about motor racing was the danger , living on the edge ,so many of his contemporaries died that he surely knew just how dangerous it was

next item on the agenda was recovery , within 3 months or so of regaining conciousness , both felt they were recovered ...but they were not !
hammond said that that he didn't see one of his friends for a year after that , and when his friend told him how ill he had still been after 3 months he realised that it was true ; a further year on he realised that even after 15 months he was still quite ill

stirling said that after the first three months he went and did some laps and realised that his racing career was over ...he could still drive ok but only by thinking ...previously , he ,said, he did everything by instinct , never considering what he was doing , completely automatic ; he said if he had to think then if he didn't kill himself he would certainly kill somebody else ..that lead him on to talking about open road races , where he said he had a horror of hitting a spectator ; he talked of the last year of the mille miglia ....he and his co-driver tried communicating with headphones , but his concentration was such that he could hear nothing ...in the end he was warned of what was coming up by a hand signal in his field of vision [ I suspect that's normal ..I know myself if I need to concentrate hard on driving I can hear nothing ]
hammond also interviewed prof sid watkins ,they discussed stirling's test and the prof said he would not have permitted him to drive at all for a minimum of 2 years after such a traumatic brain injury ; during the programme the importance of not expressing ideas in front of such patients was discussed ; it appears that it imprints , and they believe that's what they think , brain plays funny tricks , hammond thought his wife was someone else even when his actual wife was sitting with him

if you get an opportunity to see the recording , it's a most interesting hour [imho !]

It was a great intervies with Sir Stirling as usual his happy self.
All the drivers I have spoken to who have experienced similar accidents have very similar stories to tell.
I went into a steel post backwards in a small saloon and was 'out' for about ten minutes. Not as bad as the two guys in the interview of course but similar effect.
I could not remember the crash and never have. In fact later the experience tended to reinforce a feeling of superiority over pain, as I also felt nothing.
I do these days though. My left shoulder and side where I cracked some ribs and pulled the muscles now gives me hell on occasion, although I thought nothing about it back then.
There is one strange thing I have concluded and that is, those drivers who have bad accidents do not strait away get put off or frightened of racing again.
In fact giving up and retiring is IMO nothing connected to the accident at all.

I just read this on a guitar forum, some video here...

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/bad-dog-cafe ... -moss.html

I saw the last half hour but didn't think too much of it.

I caught this the other day by accident, was just flicking through for stuff waiting for dinner to cook and it was on - very good watch.
Bizarelly though, the thing that I took away from it most was the honesty and pragmatism that Hammond had about it all. It's probably the first thing that I've seen where he hasn't been in entertainment mode, and looked genuinely scared and uncomfortable at times.

Obviously their stories of recovery and everything else are fascinating too. The brain's a wierd and wonderful thing, but most of us are aware of that anyway eh.

Most of us HungreyHebbo but I think andrew has a bit of a problem and drops back into Briatorre mode every now and then.
Shame.

Briatore mode? What the hell is that meant to mean?

I'm not a fan of Stirling Moss or Richard Hammond so found the programme lacking.

I was not under the impresion that the program was in any way a fanboy program.
It was about brains IMO, so most would have understood it.

I always wondered what Senna, Villeneuve or Clark thought before they were killed, and the answer seems to be absolutely nothing.

I wonder if that's true of ALL racing drivers though, or certain mindsets? In my experience of mountain biking for example, before a big accident (and I mean big ones, not just gentle stacks) it's definitely an 'Oh S***!' moment as opposed to having the checklist that Hammond mentioned. I know mtb'ing is hardly the same as pootling along in a jet powered tea-tray, but it's still the same principle - something very bad's about to happen and there's nothing I can do about it.
On the other hand, there have been times where I remember utterly nothing about the accident, my mind's switched off before I've actually started the accident....who knows.

HungryHebbo wrote:I wonder if that's true of ALL racing drivers though, or certain mindsets? In my experience of mountain biking for example, before a big accident (and I mean big ones, not just gentle stacks) it's definitely an 'Oh S***!' moment as opposed to having the checklist that Hammond mentioned. I know mtb'ing is hardly the same as pootling along in a jet powered tea-tray, but it's still the same principle - something very bad's about to happen and there's nothing I can do about it.
On the other hand, there have been times where I remember utterly nothing about the accident, my mind's switched off before I've actually started the accident....who knows.

A fascinating thread - unexpected from the title. I think you can quite rightly compare mountin biking to their crashes. To some extent you are less protected, therefore your expectation of trauma as the accident unfolds is pretty high.....

I think you are right about the mind switching off in some accidents. I think it depends how long the crash lasts for. I have had motorcyle accidents in the past (mostly MX) and some seem to last forever (typically when you are fighting loss of control for ages) - others it's like a switch just before the accident until whenever you come 'round after.

I think the body reacts to trauma however it happens, last year I had a pretty big operation. No head injury, so nothing like as serious as these two brave men. But I share it as perspective - I was expected to be in hospital for 2-3 weeks before recovering at home for another 6. In reality (maybe it's the motorcyclist being used to dealing with pain/trauma) I was on my feet (ish) after 3 days and the chucked me out after 5 because the couldn't nail me down. At that point you feel pretty well recovered.....but you are not, you just don't know it until a few weeks later when you realise how bad you actually felt compared to the present day. This experience repeated itself for more than six months until I KNEW I was back to my old self. Only then do you realise how far removed you were from being fit and well. I think it's the body's way of making sure you fight to get better.

autogyro wrote:I was not under the impresion that the program was in any way a fanboy program.
It was about brains IMO, so most would have understood it.

For me the programme would have been just as interesting without the celebrity factor.

RH1300S wrote: ... I think it's the body's way of making sure you fight to get better.

I think you might be right there. I think another part of it is that you don't appreciate what feeling 'fine' is until you're not. When something happens that puts your body waaay out of kilter, although you may have been fine and fit before, maybe your mind/conscious has no real bearing on what that actually is. All it can do is compare how your body feels now to how it felt a day ago, or something along those lines anyway. That could explain why you think you're fine 2 weeks later, but then the next week think, 'Ok, NOW I'm better' etc as you said. I guess it's a perspective thing and a 'Come on, lets get on with it' attitude.

Talking of blanking out before accidents though, I think the most terrifying one I ever had was about 200m from my front door. Was cycling home (on the road) perfectly fine, no issues whatsoever. Next thing I know is that I wake up tangled in the bike, lying in the middle of the road, bleeding everywhere. The confusion was incredible!