Canadian Grand Prix 2007: Post Race

After the race, people literally tear the fences away and run onto the track.



Why? To get to the podium to see the awards, and the champagne shower. Left to right are Heidfeld (2nd Place), Hamilton (winner), Martin Whitmarsh (Ron Dennis' deputy; accepting the Construtor's day trophy for the McLaren team) and Alexander Wurz (3rd).





You also get a chance to see the race cars up close, though sometimes you have to fight the crowds to do it. Here's Jarno's broken car being brought in through the crowd. Yes, it's that crowded.



After the podium, the crowd starts dispersing more. Most people hang at the pit wall, where you can see the cars up close, and at the far end, are inspected by FIA staff to insure they meet spec. Here's Heidfeld's car with Wurz's in the background.



Nico Rosberg's awaiting weigh in.



Anthony Davidson' Super Aguri...






You can peek in the pits and see what's up.









Sometimes, you get to see really cool stuff. Here's Lewis Hamilton's pit board held out to him on the last lap. It says with 1 lap left (L1) he's in first place (P1), 6.2 seconds ahead of heidfeld and 8.6 seconds ahead of Wurz.



After the race, it's not wise to try and rush home. There's 110,000 race fans plus who knows how many people that were working now trying to get off the island. So normally, we walk the track and look at the accident sites (then go for beer). Robert Kubica's accident was the one we wanted to see. The film of the accident keeps going up on YouTube, and the FIA keeps getting it taken down. I linked it above; maybe it will stay. But here's where he hit. He glanced off the yellow concrete barrier, then smacked the white one in the background.



The white wall moved about 6 inches, and was cracked on the other side.



Then he cartwheeled across the grass, gouging ruts 6" deep...



...scraping ruts in the asphalt, too, finally coming to rest against the wall.

And Robert was fine, virtually uninjured.

F1 exists, I think, to develop technology for use in your car. Thank F1 for turbochargers, ABS brakes, limited slip differentials, traction control, dynamic braking, paddle shifting and other niceties. I want Robert Kubica's cockpit in my car some day. Kudos to the FIA Safety guys, the BMW Sauber team, and everyone else involved in advancing car safety.