On that UK Sun webpage, there's a picture below the video of a document issued a couple of hours after the crash by race officials. It contains the understatement of the century:

"Status:
Admission for future examination on 16:40 18th November, 2018 and not fit to race."

There are teen drivers in the support series here as well as there. It’s not unusual. Watch an ARCA race. There are teenagers racing at Daytona, Talkedega.

That car was a freakin bullet!

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Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:
That car was a freakin bullet!

No shit! It's amazing no one was killed.

Jim

She’s undergoing surgery tomorrow.

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Just wanted to let everybody know that I am fine but will be going into Surgery tomorow morning. Thanks to the @fia and @hwaag_official @MercedesAMGF1 who are taking great care of me. Thanks to everybody for the Supporting messages. Update soon.

Hope she heals quickly and completely

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Originally posted by MattW:

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Matt, 17yo is 17yo. I don't care about the cloth you think she is cut from. Her or anyone else cannot have their chops at 17. If I am am and experienced driver and their is someone out their that is putting me at risk because they do not have the time in or the developed skill experience can only provide I am not going to except that. That is way to young for that kind of responsibility, imo.

I’d venture that she is of average age for Formula 3. And she isn’t there by chance, she’s there just like the rest of the drivers, for a sound reason. Racing at that level requires dump truck loads of money. Team owners don’t simply let an unqualified person sit behind the wheel.

By the time I obtained my International Racing License at age 26, I was too old to actually race on the International Circuit. Had to give that dream up before it really started.

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Originally posted by newtoSig765:

quote:

Originally posted by MattW:

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Matt, 17yo is 17yo. I don't care about the cloth you think she is cut from. Her or anyone else cannot have their chops at 17. If I am am and experienced driver and their is someone out their that is putting me at risk because they do not have the time in or the developed skill experience can only provide I am not going to except that. That is way to young for that kind of responsibility, imo.

I’d venture that she is of average age for Formula 3. And she isn’t there by chance, she’s there just like the rest of the drivers, for a sound reason. Racing at that level requires dump truck loads of money. Team owners don’t simply let an unqualified person sit behind the wheel.

By the time I obtained my International Racing License at age 26, I was too old to actually race on the International Circuit. Had to give that dream up before it really started.

This. Awesome that you obtained that level of license. At the same time, you’re 100% right, there aren’t many 30+ year old F1 drivers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGUZJVY-sHo

F1 cars scare me...

Cue Felipe Massa crying that F3 doesn't do enough to protect drivers in 3... 2... 1...

Experience can't make up for fast twitch reflexes.

Even competitive gamers lose their edge in their mid twenties. I'm guessing it's the same for racing.

She was born Dec 2000 and began karting in 2005. So at the oldest, she was 5. Maybe 4! She's been racing kart since 2008. Ginetta Junior 2015-2016. F4 2016-2018. F3 since March 2018.

I'd give her the nod on experience. Probably as much as almost any other driver in the race. In my estimation -- Open wheel is crazy dangerous.

There is an element of fearlessness and indestructibility in the personalities of all successful race car drivers. These are personality traits most abundant in people in their teens and 20's. I was an amateur driver from my late 20's until a bad crash into a wall in my late 30's. Even though I kept at it a couple of more years, I never lapped as fast, because I simply wouldn't run the car past the edge of what I considered safe. A lot of very fast drivers are never again as fast after a big accident that slaps them in the face with their mortality.

An issue with open wheel is when you run a wheel into the wheel of a car in front of you, yours is lifted and you go airborne. Good things rarely happen then.

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Originally posted by slosig:
An issue with open wheel is when you run a wheel into the wheel of a car in front of you, yours is lifted and you go airborne. Good things rarely happen then.

Yeah, and I'm assuming that's what got her off the ground seemingly right before it was time to brake hard. The worst of all possible times.

It is idiotic to have CHILDREN driving cars at 200 freaking miles per hour, for fuck's sake. Good God, what has happened to this world?? People behave as if they don't have the first lick of common sense, and it's rampant.

There's tons of youth racing all over the world. From Jr. Kart, to NHRA Jr. Streets, Quarter Midget dirt tracking, and I'm sure many others. It's not like folks jump into a Stock car or F1 car at 20 years old and figure it out then. You gotta start somewhere, in slower cars. There's plenty of other youth sports out there that have an element of danger, and kids play them all the time. It's no more idiotic to let a kid race, then let them play PeeWee Football.

Also, F3 cars top out about 160mph.

You guys can talk yourself blue in the face, tell me that she was racing while she was still in the womb, and that she has been scientifically tested by 27 different independent laboratories and has been determined by all of them to be the most skilled race car driver ever to draw a breath, and my answer would still be the same. You can forget about convincing me that having a child out there on that track is even in the vicinity of a good idea.

It's a bad, bad idea. End of story.

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Originally posted by dogmush:
It's no more idiotic to let a kid race, then let them play PeeWee Football.

My day is just starting here, but I'll bet my next paycheck that I don't hear anything dumber than this all day long.

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Originally posted by old rugged cross:
It is nuts that a 17yo driver could obtain the kind of skill to drive a vehicle like that at those speeds...

Apparently she didn't.



.

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Originally posted by parabellum:
It is idiotic to have CHILDREN driving cars at 200 freaking miles per hour,

Yeah, I agree. I don't care that they can't be 'competitive' as adults. It's child endangerment, plain and simple.

And I understand the reflexes thing. At least with video gaming (to cite Aeteocles's example), people don't REALLY run the risk of dying in real life in a Call of Duty tournament. . .

In the Olympics, they make the same arguments about gymnasts - how they are most flexible as children. Yet, the Olympics sets minimum age limits for their competitions (remember the 12-14 yr old Chinese girls that competed in Beijing, when all the Chinese insisted they were really 16?).

And, don't try to tell me that Formula racing is no different than the Floor Routine, because I just don't buy those comparisons.

I freely admit that this girl is MUCH more experienced at high speed driving than I will ever be. That's not the point. She's a CHILD.