That's One Lucky Pole

On June 10th Robert Kubica, an F1 driver from Poland, launched his car airborne when he left the track and hit the grass apron during the Canada Grand Prix.

Videos are available by clicking here.

He's fine, came out of the hospital on the 11th limping a little bit, but otherwise OK. He also said he remembered basically everything about the crash, presumably including the bit where his feet were dangling out of what was once the front end of the car when it was over (that would explain the limp).

Thing is, though, the wreck illustrates part of what I dislike so much about Formula One versus the other major auto racing formats, NASCAR and IRL/Cart (Indy Car).

Formula One tracks have a bumper curb, meaning that the road edge is higher than the grass around the track in the apron. As part of their desire to not see racers take shortcuts around the track, F1 also has that curb ramped, meaning that there's basically a small ramp all around the track. This means that when a car loses control, if it hits that ramped curb moving forward, it will go airborne.

Just like Robert Kubica's car did.

If you watch the video carefully, one thing you'll notice is that the front end of the car stayed airborn almost until the car struck the dividing wall. If the car had remained at that angle for another split second, chances are good that Kubica would have been killed by being crushed or split in half, or that the car itself would have continued onward and upward into oncoming traffic - he wrecked at the start of a U-turn.

NASCAR and IRL/Cart road tracks have flat curbs, so if you lose control, you just slide into the dirt and barriers. There's no going airborne as a result of a system-wide design flaw.

That flaw came pretty close to killing a guy. I hope F1 changes that curb system before it actually does kill someone.

By the way, how many people thought this post would be about strippers?