quote:

Originally posted by Lorenzo Pessa:
First of all: autocross. when the results will be published you will notice a lot of cones and off course.
Why? because the organizers changed the entering side of a slalom between course walk and autocross and positioned badly the cones in a corner down there (it was not clear where to go).

They also seemed to have a little problem with assigning the # of cones and the laptimes to the correct run (or even driver). Happened to us seemingly, and at least one other team.

Hi guys... I can say that I pretty much second the opinions of fantomas and lorenzo. I came to the event just to spectate (my team wasn't registered) and I expected chaos. My expectations have been clearly succeeded!

Normally I'm not the one complaining about organisation of the events around here as I appreciate the effort by the people who make all this possible.

But in this case it is a bit different. I took part at FSAE-I as a team member in 08 and 09 and was there as a visitor last year. During these three events nobody got seriously injured. But that is more or less coincidence.

In 08 they had the track set up in a way that if you missed one particular bus stop you would have crashed into a wall. They changed it after several drivers insisted on a change.
Behind the acceleration track there were a couple of meters left then there were some cones and that was the end of the dynamic area were people were walking around. One of our drivers back then didn't manage to brake early enough because he didn't get the checkered flag and wasn't sure, when he crossed the finish line. It was pure luck he didn't hit anyone.

In 09 they didn't have any fire extinguishers in the driver change area when the Darmstadt car catched fire. Some other teams had to help out there.

I don't know what's wrong with the track marshalls there. Most of them just don't pay any attention to what's happening around them. Very often cars have to stay several laps behind a slower car because they just don't show the blue flag. In case of an emergency it takes ages until there is any reaction and then the reaction is usually wrong.

SAE should have a close look what events they are giving their name for. I really appreciate that there are also in Italy people who are willing to organise an event in there free time. But it is only a matter of time that someone gets seriously injured if the event continues to be run like this.

I would add more.

The test area in 2009 (the first year in Varano) and 2010 where on an small elevated area. It was really dangerous, it was signalled at the end of 2009 event but nothing was done for 2010.
In 2010 one (or two?) car fall down from the elevation.
For 2011 the test area was moved down to the pit level and this is great. The problem is they used simple crowd control barriers instead of plastic crush barriers.

here you can see it from a cameracar by Karlsruhe (@47s) h t t p :/ /w ww.youtube.com/watch?v=TDjUwwLH_Bs

Instead the engine area was sorrounded by... nothing!

From 2009 the event is improved a lot in aspects like communication. Surely not in safety.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Lorenzo Pessa,