I don’t know who you are buddy but a massive THANK YOU 🙏🏻 ❤ Mission Motorsport have been supporting me for 8 years now and have taken me to the F1. The donations that you and other make really do change lives and give veterans something to look forward to too. Again thank you ✌🏻&❤️💪🏻🇬🇧🏁
I was at Brands Hatch that day in 2009. I was 11 years old and inside the Abarth racing booth above the start/finish straight. My memory of the event isn't the best due to my young age and the amount of time that has passed, but I do remember this. One moment the race was in full swing, commentator talking away and such, then the next moment, this pure silence came over the track. The type of silence that if you've been around racing, you know can't be good. Nobody knew what had happened as at first they didn't show any replays of the accident on the trackside screens out of respect for Henry. Once they announced he was being airlifted to hospital we assumed the worst. Terrible loss to motorsport. I met John the year after in 2010 at a kart racing trophy presentation, where he presented me with my championship trophy, and I remember there was a special Henry Surtees trophy which he presented to one of the drivers. He may be gone, but he will never be forgotten.
@@kookyotakuvibes238you have to be a child, they said their story and how they were there for the event and met the father of the deceased. No need for you to be a condescending bastard. Grow up dude, events like deaths during a race stick with all the people that were there.
@@tomdavies6256they're definitely just a child acting out and thinking they're cool. Like you said being there for a death during a race sticks around with you forever. I'm glad you told your story, it's nice to know his father was still that involved only a year after!
I’m glad his father took a proactive approach to the sport via increased engineering like the halo. Thoughts and prayers do nothing unless they are followed up with action. Such a class act. Reminds me a lot of Niki Lauda.
I agree! Thoughts, prayers, wishes and dreams are useless alone. Action is what matters. By the way, by sheer coincidence, I saw Rush for the first time last night. Great movie!
@@antoniogardelli7991there are dozens of deaths in the last that would be avoided with modern halo. We probably wouldn't be able to even name them all.
8 месяцев назад
Justin Wilson
8 месяцев назад
@@Tutel0093so sad they haven't idea of protection like today HALO and areoscreen
I’ve seen many horrific crashes in my lifetime and very, very few deaths. My appreciation for the advances in the safety of these cars cannot be understated, and my grief for those who were lost before them is heavy. That photo of his empty car is haunting. He became a hero in a totally unexpected way in death and that’s pretty badass.
The only assurances anyone can get from this tragic fatality is that Henry saw nothing except the tire, felt nothing except a small and painless thump on the helmet, and was hopefully in a dream-like comatose state until his breathing stopped eventually and he let go. This is absolutely the way I would want to go...right in the middle of doing something I loved, painless and quick without any prior knowledge of what happened. Hopefully in his dreamstate, he continued the race and won straight onwards to the next life.
so Tragic and wholeheartedly agree with Dave's comment below “Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity. That is the definition of a legacy.” RIP, Henry
Flying wheels are one of the most dangerous aspect of motorsports for drivers, spectators, and pit crew members. There are numerous incidents of people being killed by fly away wheels. In this year's Indianapolis 500 a tire flew off and up into the area of the grandstands, but luckily missed all the spectators, but significantly damaging a parked car behind the stands.
As we racers push the limits of ourselves and machinery, tragically some safety measures are born of fatal incidents. Thank you to the family for helping others through organ donation. Both Henry and Johns legacy will live on
I knew him personally through racing yrs ago, he was s tough customer to beat, hes such a great guy as well as his father john, love them and miss them both.
Henry you live on in 5 saved lives. EVERYBODY carry an organ donation card, we never know when our time will come but we can help others when we are gone.
Thanks for making this video. I didn't know that's why the halo was put on cars. I did realize it was for safety but it seemed extreme. Now, I completely understand AND agree. Damn this was so crazy. Sad that it usually takes a death, in many aspects in life, for a major change to happen. Rest In Peace, Henry Surtees!
Its such a shame that lives have to be inadvertently sacrificed to make great advancements in safety when it comes to motorsport. Rest in peace Henry, John, and all other drivers, personnel, and spectators that have lost their lives as a result of unfortunate racing incidents.
A tragic story, but his death wasn't in vain, out of it the halo was fitted and made mandatory. It's a terrible tragedy the young talented driver's life was taken, but because of it, other tragic accidents were undoubtably prevented.
Man this is the first time I'm seeing this channel, you sound really sad and emotional man, great video and RIP henry, hare to see pure talent being taken away from us so soon
So they did have wheel tethers? I remember a comment from Mercedes' motorsports boss at the time, Norbert Haug, which infuriated me even then, but this makes it even worse. He said this couldn't happen in F1 because of the wheel tethers. So it turns out he was not only insensitive but also clueless. Nevermind the fact that there have been lose wheels in F1 time and time again, and that any major bit of debris coming off of a crashed car can become perilous at sufficient speed. Case in point, about two days after his comment, Massa just barely survived a similar incident in F1.
You can really tell how solid the hit was by looking at how the tire went flying at 4:19 that tire really went flying. It looked like it flew about 100 meters on a 30 degree angle of launch. That means it was accelerated to about 35 m/s in an instant. Given the mass of 29 kilos that means about 35^2 * 29 = 35525 joules of kinetic energy was transferred in a split second. That's a lot of energy.
The sad thing is usually these things need to happen for action to be taken. Some things are just unpredictable, or have such tiny chances of happening it just slips the mind. What instantly came to mind during this video to me was the last Indy 500 from 2023, where Kirkwood's tire flew over the catch fencing and luckily missed the grandstand hitting a couple of parked cars in the parking lot. That could've ended so badly too, and I really hope they took action on that (I follow F1 but usually watch the Indy 500, haven't heard any news or action about that incident since.)
It is for the easy exit of the vehicle in the event of a crash, or to look at it another way, to minimise the chance of entrapment. This would have saved many lives over the years, namely from incineration. This amounts to a safety feature, of sorts. This opening in the car has been revised in Formula One over the years, other major changes made after Ayrton Senna and Mika Hakkinen's crashes in consecutive years. The halo inhibits the exiting of the cockpit somewhat, hence why drivers must pass a timed test.
"Over the years" by which you mean the 1970s.... Verstappen in 94 could've been prevented simply by benetton following the rules with the fuelling rig.... And they added 2 secs to the timed test because of the halo
@@JohnLawley24v who said I meant just the 70s? You made that up in your head. I was actually thinking, of the majority, earlier. Then you jump to the 90s with something about Jos and refuelling?? Extra 2 seconds? So it must impede, like I said. Sometimes, I don't understand why people reply.
Wow, I only noticed the halos over the last few years watching motorsport. I figured they were a safety item. They couldn’t just be there to look cool, but I didn’t know that this was the reason they were implemented. What a story.
It’s terrible that safety improvements only come after tragedy. The aeroscreen in IndyCar may have saved Justin Wilson (however the angle it hit was nearly 90 degrees so it may still have hit). The best example imo showing the aeroscreen’s success is when Callum Ilott had debris hit the screen, slide up, and break the air hose connected to his helmet which was slightly above the screen. This was at 220mph at Texas Motor Speedway. The onboard of it looks really scary yet really cool at the same time.
It wasn’t the derrick minter straight. That’s the straight ahead of the Westfield Turn, that straight that comes after it is the Dingle Dell and then the Sheene Curve, which is also where the wikipedia article states his vehicle comes to a rest with his remaining rear wheel still spinning
The tethers failed TWICE. Notice the rear left wheel of Henry's vehicle ALSO came off... Edit: Oh, you mention this like a minute after I paused the video to type this comment, lol.
careful observers will note that that while Clarke's LR came loose, when it shouldn't have, but that Surtees' LR *ALSO* came off of his car . this suggests a problem in chassis construction and also raises a specter that this could have kept daisy chaining down through the field.
A very good "Crash that changed..." post. Poignant. To be fair, this crash wasn't the game changer like Senna's. Or Jules Bianchi - the reason we have Halo today. And NOBODY welcomed Halo when it was conceived and introduced. Lewis was in favor - but he's a good company man. We simply don't know if Halo has saved any lives - but it certainly mitigated outcomes dramatically. A parallel to Henry - the Justin Wilson accident gave us the Red Bull shield. All the human losses in motorsport must have a legacy of safety to their names. John Surtees and Jackie Stewart understood this.
Yeah, great way to overshadow the final "This can't ever happen again" moment. Jules Bianchi at Suzuka. Henry's passing might've gotten the ball rolling, but it had to be another possibly pointless death that finally forced the FIA to do something about it. I've gotten used to the HALO now, but I still prefer the look of cars without them. I can't help it, it's how I grew up watching F1.
I have followed F1 Indy Car & NASCAR all my life and raced historic GP cars and seen toomany crashes. But while this crash was tragic and the loss very sad I do not think you can justify your flat statement that it changed racing forever in any way!That is simply in no way true!
Probably just a clickbait title. Not many things "changed racing forever" - downforce is the sort of thing that changed racing forever. Telemetry and data analysis perhaps, in certain categories.
I'm still, to this day wondering why the wheel came off. FIA had mandated tethers for quite a few years, IIRC it was since either late 2000 or 2001/2 after marshals were killed by flying wheels however. Indycar, in the then IRL already mandated them after an incident in 1999 at Charlotte though EDIT: What I mean is, from all I found the tethers should have been able to take the forces in the crash when Clark hit the barrier. That is a routine incident after all, cars hit the walls or barriers all the time and the wheels 99/100 times, stay on the car
I didn't realise till watching this that surtees rear also broke free of its tether!!! Very sad remember watching this live nobody realised he was even hurt at the time or why he went off until they watched the replay
A good video but it's a bit short sighted. As a fan of both Indycar and F1, it amazes me how those outside North America seem to think nothing else matters than the F1 and feeder series. In 2015, an English driver named Justin Wilson was killed at Pocono in 2015 when flying debris from a crash hit him in the head. Although F1 was the first to implement the head protection system, it wasn't as a result of an F2 crash a year or two earlier. It was well in the works.
whats tragic was that INDY had halos before this and that the FIA were just too stubborn to do anything about it until it reached the point where F1 drivers were scrutinizing the organizers for not implementing it. Of course, some were also against it due to visual concerns but again, they already had data from indy racers that it wasn't so.
"THE" crash? There were many crashes that changed racing forever. Examples are Dale Earnhardt (resulting in Hans device requirements to prevent neck injuries), Don Garlits (clutch explosion and crash resulting in him inventing rear engine dragsters) and Scott Kalitta (track overrun crash resulting in drag strips being shortened from 1/4 mile or 1320' to 1000 feet). I could go on. RIP to all of them.
I think Jules Bianchi dying due to head injuries in an F1 race was a much greater factor in the introduction of halo's. Once it happens on such a big stage in front of a world wide audience, then, the people who have (and had until then ignored) a duty to protect the drivers have no choice but to take action... It's sad that it takes such situations to force people to take action, Senna was pushing for greater safety at the time of his death, but the people at the top just don't care about anything other than lining their pockets and maintaining their sense of empowerment over people.
As a fair weather fan, I never knew the 'why', I just saw how many fans hated the halo. It was almost instantaneous when the first accident with a halo saved the driver's life. Their whines stopped instantly.
I still think the Halo is horrible looking and totally ruins the look of the cars and stops us seeing the driver 'at work'. but.. that said, I welcome the Halo as the safety of the drivers is paramount.
this was horrifically tragic, but calling every sensational event something that "changed X forever" is boring, hyperbolically silly, and takes away from the tragedy.
The thing that always bothers me about the F1 Halo or the Halo windscreen an IndyCar is every time there is a wreck where something got even close to the cockpit commentators say that so-and-so's life was saved by the Halo. If every person who has been in an accident where the Halo provided some protection would have died, there would be no one left to race because everyone would be dead. This is not to take away from the benefit of the Halo or windscreen, but not everything that happens needs to be sensationalized for it to be a good idea. Both of them are great ideas and needed. Just let them live in the space where they live. That is, they prevent tons of injuries the occasional death. That is enough to justify them.
I'll say it again, I cant believe it took as long as it did to get halos. Its obvious as hell. Having your head completely exposed at those speeds is lunacy
Not only did the initial car lose its wheel, but so did Henry. That’s two massive engineering failures in a matter of 10 seconds. Could have cost a second person their life.
6:44 if it wasn't for the halo, *Charles Leclerk* would have died at Spa Francorchamps because of alonso landed on his car bvecause of Hulkenberg late braking at turn 1.*This accident happened a year BEFORE Leclerk's friend died!!!*
Sorry but the quest to create a safety system in F1 came about after Jules Bianchi crashed into a crane after deciding he didn't need to slow down so much on a very wet track. The crane was removing Adrian Suit's Sauber who had also misjudged how heavy the rain was and went off and crashed. Ironically, just 6 days after Henry Surtees tragic accident, Felipe Massa was struck on his head, particularly his left brow area by Rubens Barrichello's rear suspension spring that had worked its way loose and fell off and was bouncing on the track as Felipe was approaching at a very high rate of speed, and he too was knocked unconscious and crashed into the barriers, albeit at a reduced speed, but he was lucky not to have died. After Massa's accident the Zylon visor strip which sits across the top of the visor, was introduced and was made mandatory on all FIA approved helmets to this day, but NO PLANS for a true cockpit safety device was ever seriously discussed by the FIA or FOM until after Bianchi died. John Surtees' efforts went pretty much unheard or swept under the rug (if you will) until Bianchi died. It was then that the "history" to improve cockpit safety was suddenly linked to John Surtees' efforts. Sad, but that's the truth.
💙 R.I.P 💙...it is sad that sometimes it takes a tragedy to further develop safety devices that then will save many more lives...just like losing Dale Sr. spawned the development of the H.A.N.S device...R.I.P to all those we lost too soon doing what they loved...but they have moved on into the next chapter of existence and we will all meet again on our infinite journey ❤️🤍💙
Wow, I just looked him up and his father was one lucky horn dog. He was married three times to women who were much younger. His second wife was a real babe and then his 3rd (Henry's mother), was obviously young enough to have him. He was 57 when Henry was born and he also had 2 sisters.
