Wolff: "16-year-olds racing in F3 not a good thing"
- Published on 23 May 2016 11:20
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- By: Rob Veenstra
Toto Wolff thinks the world of premier motor racing might need to revisit the issue of driver age, following an enormous crash at the weekend. Li Zhi (Peter) Cong is currently in hospital with broken vertebrae, but he was otherwise lucky to survive an incredible rear-end smash into a rival who spun during the top European F3 series race at the Red Bull Ring.
The rival hit by Cong, American Ryan Tveter, collapsed after escaping from his wreckage but is basically unhurt. Kleine Zeitung, an Austrian newspaper, called it "probably the most spectacular accident of the decade". While neither Cong nor Tveter are teenagers, Formula 3 in the past year or so has been the scene of many spectacular and scary incidents.
"The pressure on these young lads is too high," Toto Wolff, Mercedes' F1 team boss, said. "It cannot be a good thing when 16-year-olds are racing in Formula 3. I think a minimum age should be introduced -- 18 years for F3 and twenty for formula one."
Following Max Verstappen's arrival in F1 last year as a 17-year-old, the governing FIA installed a minimum age of 18 for the pinnacle of motor racing. (GMM)
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Replies (3)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Oh dear, I hope Cong wont get any chronic damage from that incident. That crash looked awful.
Patentprutser
Posts: 392
Saw it live on tv. The drivers didn't make a mistake (accept the spinning of Piquet), the gravel was to dry, that created a cloud of dust which made the track invisible like a blind corner. Li Zhi couldn't know the car stood on the track because of that, he expected that the car stood in the gravel but it wasn't, unfortunately. The track committee should be addressed why they hadn't sprayed the gravel it has nothing to do with age af the drivers.
khasmir
Posts: 893
I agree that this should be a lesson to prevent so much dust from being kicked up.
But were the yellow flags out on time? None of the two drivers that crashed into Tveter seemed to have slowed down. And they could have driven around the thickest part of the dust cloud but they drove straight into it with zero visibility. They must have seen Tveter his spin in front of them...