5 replies to this topic

[RedFever]

Translated from Il Corriere della Sera:

There is someone, who like David Coulthard, can tell the story: October 12, 1990, Alessandro Nannini was in his elicopter, near the pilot. The plan was to land in the space in front of the villa dating 1400 the Nannini family owned in the countryside of Siena. The pilot tried instead to land a little before, where the soil was slightly downsloping. The elicopter touched the ground and bounced back in the air and then crashed on the ground. The rotor detached and cut off the ALessandro's right arm. The arm was then reattached with a delicate surgical intervention, but Alessandro's career, then first driver at Bennetton, was over.
Today Alessandro Nannini is still the same outspoken character. When we told him about David Coulthard's accident over the phone, he had an instinctive reaction: "boy he was lucky!!!". Then, thinking back at his accident, he became serious again. "When you face death, you see 25,000 things at the same time. I have relived my life at insane speed. But my accident gave me 4-5 seconds of fear, David and his friends suffered in a different way. I can't say what they thought or saw. But their fear didn't last 4-5 seconds like for me, it lasted minutes".
What happens when a driver survives something like this? Can you go back on a circuit, driving at 200mph only four days after such an horrible experience?: «I doubt this kind of accident affects your courage, on the contrary, I think it's beneficial. ANd you know why? Because it charges you, you feel like nothing can touch you, that if things ended up well for you, there is no more problem. Almost every F1 driver is a fatalist, they accept what comes to them. And they erase from their memory anything negative that happens to them».
Therefore David on Friday will start practice in SPain like nothing happened? «No, the accident is too close. But I think he will not pull off his foot from the accelerator. David will find comfort in thinking that on a plane he is powerless, but in a car, yes, in a car he is in control».
Michael Schumacher, leader of the World Champioship with Ferrari, was visibly shocked from hearing about David Coulthard's accident: «What happened to David is terrible, I got really scared when I first heard the first news. To him, his fiance Heidi and the other surviror I wish a fast and healthy recovery». Schumacher uses for his travels a Canadair 603A. A while ago, he also lived a terrifying moment because of a fire that started on board. The pilot however managed to land the plane. Also his brother Ralph uses a plane: It's a Piaggio P-180 with turbo propeller.

[This message has been edited by RedFever (edited 05-03-2000).]

[Spinoza]

Thanks for that Red Fever. Does anyone remember last year - I think it was on the way to Barcelona - that Irvine's plane suffered a blown-out window in the cockpit and he had to do an emergency landing ? He said at the time that he had "never been so frightened."

I guess, no matter how fatalistic F1 drivers are, being in control is a really important factor in reducing (or managing) their fear. That's why overtaking is so important to the sport and why they show real courage when, for a moment at least, their fate can often be in the hands of another driver.

[This message has been edited by Spinoza (edited 05-03-2000).]

[Elspeth]

I do miss Nannini, he had such talent.

As I recall he did drive in some touring car series, but was never able to return to F-1.

[BuzzingHornet]

Yeah, he was also in the FIA GT's for a while

[Viktor]

What is a elicopter???

/Viktor

[RedFever]

Nannini actually had a chance to drive an F1 again. Ferrari offered him to drive their F1 in Fiorano immediately after the surgery, whenever he felt he was ready (he had offered a seat from Ferrari just months before, but Alessandro had turned it down, since it was a 1 year contract, Bennetton had offered him 2 years plus option).

He eventually did test in Fiorano and boy the times were pretty good but not competitive compared to Ferrari drivers. The big problem, as Alex reported it, was in hairpin turns, like the Loews in Monaco or the one in Montreal, etc. There is one in Fiorano and he mentioned that having to cross his arms there, almost costs him one full second due to his injury. As we all know, you can't lose one second in one turn in F1 and have any chance to be competitive.