After a long summer hiatus, Formula 1 was back on track this past weekend, racing at one of everyone's favorite tracks, Spa Francorchamps in Belgium. FLIR—which makes both professional and consumer-grade infrared cameras—sent along this video giving us a great (if somewhat unusual) view of the cars in action:
It's a good reminder that there's a whole lot of energy in the 1.6l turbocharged hybrid V6 that powers each F1 car, particularly in a season when the cars are much quieter than in years past. The race itself was on par for the rest of this season. Predictions were that the start could be chaotic, thanks to a recent rule change preventing team engineers from coaching drivers through their starting procedures. This didn't really materialize, nor did the rain, a near certainty at the Belgian circuit even during the dog days of summer. The Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg remain leagues ahead of the competition, with the former winning the race comfortably.
But the thoughts of everyone in the racing world are focused on popular IndyCar (and former F1) driver Justin Wilson. At the series' penultimate round yesterday in Pocono, Penn., Wilson was critically injured after being struck by debris from another car following a late race crash. Wilson's is merely the latest in an all-too-sad list of serious head injuries from open-cockpit cars, and we expect calls for some form of canopy to become much more vocal.
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