Alonzo....

[R. Pare]

Leg injuries from a crash like that can happen simply because of the forces that toss the legs about, impacting the insides of the tub.

[Charles Warner]

For the record--if you've been any kind of open-wheel race fan for the past quarter-century, you have an idea about the emotionally charged conflicts that the sport went through.

Yeah, Richard. You young whippersnappers ought to know your place, and be more aware of the history of Champ Car, IRL, Indy Car, and Verizon . . . . . . maybe someone could explain it to you sometime?

(tongue firmly planted in cheek!)

[hdsporty1988]

Leg injuries from a crash like that can happen simply because of the forces that toss the legs about, impacting the insides of the tub.

I have no idea what caused his fractured spine, but we do know that he was sitting in a state of the art seat and the tub appeared to be intact. Now think about what may have happened without that seat. Steve Lathrop has repeatedly been an advocate for bead seats on this forum due to the forces exerted on the spine in a severe crash. If you don't have one, you might want to consider one.

[DaveW]

I'd guess that the spine injury was a compression fracture, which is caused by excessive force in line with the spine. This is usually the result of a high G-load deceleration. The seat and safety harness limits movement of the tailbone/hip area, and the g-load causes the upper body to try to move forward and down. The weak link is usually a vertebra. Having a state-of the art seat will not prevent that, although it is good for general spine and body support in directions perpendicular to the spine.

[Richard Hybels]

Personally, I'd like to see him team up with Sebastian at Coyne, but Dale would have to find another top notch engineer.

Michael Cannon is at Coyne and is generally regarded as a top engineer as far as I can tell. His driver at Indy in 2017 was Rookie of the year. He engineered Almendinger to five wins in CART in one short season.

[dalz]

You can make the cars strong enough to survive crashes like Wickens' and Bourdais' last year, but that force is going somewhere. It seems to center around where the driver is anchored to his cell, lower back, pelvis, legs. I had an Elon Musk-type idea of, instead of belts, having a bead seat material cover clamping over the top of a driver to distribute a catastrophic accident load more evenly over a body. I know there's a host of problems assiciated with that idea of course, if it even kinda worked. It need a smarter person than I.

[Roland V. Johnson]

You could always try a modified aircraft torso harness.

but this is getting further and further off thread.

[R. Pare]

Michael Cannon is at Coyne and is generally regarded as a top engineer as far as I can tell. His driver at Indy in 2017 was Rookie of the year. He engineered Almendinger to five wins in CART in one short season.

Yes, but Coyne would need a second engineer for Alonzo ( or switch Cannon to Alonzo, and the new engineer to Bourdais, which he probably would protest)

[dalz]

Yes, but Coyne would need a second engineer for Alonzo ( or switch Cannon to Alonzo, and the new engineer to Bourdais, which he probably would protest)

From what I've read, the Coyne team is custom-built to Bourdais' exact demands. He's considered hard to work with, but it works for him.

[Richard Hybels]

Yes, but Coyne would need a second engineer for Alonzo ( or switch Cannon to Alonzo, and the new engineer to Bourdais, which he probably would protest)

Bourdais is engineered by Craig Hampson who engineered him to four CART Championships.
sorry about the hijack