Ground Hog Day

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This photograph was taken back in 2022 and happy to say this furry Ground Hog made it across the track safely.

Formula One and wild animals is not a good mix for obvious reasons and yesterday we were reminded that always expect the unexpected. Lewis Hamilton driving a Ferrari had his race ruined by a Ground Hog playing Frogger. This resulted in his car sustaining enough damage to affect the ground force by as much as 25% resulting in literally his car losing 0.30seconds per lap. This happened on lap 9 so do the math's by the time he finished the 70 lap race he was nearly 40 seconds off the pace.

Hamilton could have encountered any of the following wildlife species that are well known at this race track which is an island park in Montreal. Beaver, muscat, fox, ground hog, squirrel, chipmunk, racoon and skunk along with 180 different bird species. I guess the Ground Hog is a worse case scenario along with a Fox with regard to damaging the car.

This got me into thinking this cannot be the first time a Formula One car has been impeded by wild animals and there has to be other incidents over the years. When you consider the race tracks are not used all year around the animals that habitat these areas could be caught out.

The worst recorded road kill was when a bird flew into the unlucky Alan Stacey during the 1960 Grand Prix at Spa (Belgium). Back in those days the drivers wore goggles and a helmet and sat higher up in the seat. The bird flew into his face (unlucky) which resulted in his car crashing in which he was killed. Shocking really as his car left the track drove up an embankment and went through a 10 foot hedge before stopping in a field. Health and safety has improved since those days but there were still many more wild life incidents to follow.

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You can see why deer could be a problem here.

Back in 1987 at what is now known as the Red Bull Ring in Austria (Osterreichring) where the teams are racing next week a Formula One car hit a deer whilst doing 2400 Km/h during the free practice session. Stefan Johansson was the unfortunate driver who suffered rib injuries and a damaged car. In 2001 Pablo Montoya was warned of a deer loose on the Red Bull track and when he was asked about this he said it looked like a horse with antlers. You would like to think 24 years on any chance of a deer wandering on the track has been removed.

In 1999 at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia a python tried to attack a Formula One racing car and was squashed. Thankfully that track has been dropped from the racing calendar as that track used to be part of the jungle.

There has been a few other incidents over the years with the two major ones involving humans. One an ex employer of Mercedes who had been fired running across in front of the cars in Germany and another involving someone dressed up in fancy dress as a priest also running in front of the cars during a race at the Silverstone track in the UK.

I guess the things that have happened in the past have all helped to create a safer racing environment and nothing of the above could have been foreseen as this is just so unexpected.

Posted Using INLEO