http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2009/7/9684.html

It's not that ridiculous when you read the FIA's reasoning behind it, especially just one week after Henry Surtees was killed by a flying wheel.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/77354

Harsh but rules are rules, he must be pissed!

There is a (gotta be untrue) story floating around right now that Alonso will take Massa's seat so he can drive in front of his countrymen.

I think something had to be done and unfortunately it wasn't. As said, Surtees was killed by a flying wheel and Massa was seriously injured by a part from a race car, so the severity of the punishment is just about fair I'd say.

I don't believe Alonso will drive for Ferrari in the next race for a second.

I haven't read it myself, but I've heard the next 48 hours are critical for Massa i.e. life or death critical.

It's just sad that the people who will pay for this mistake are the fans. I wonder how many people are going to show up to not see Alonso.

As much as it won't happen, how crazy would it be for Alonso to drive for Ferrari for the European GP? My condolences to Massa, but reports say he has damage in his left eye, and this injury could be a season ender, or even a career ender. IF that's the case, Alonso drives for Ferrari anyway, breaches Renault's contract, and becomes a Ferrari driver. A very sad state of affairs that could (God forbid)be a blessing in disguise for Alonso.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/77379 <= Update on Massa's condition

I'm just purely speculating the scenario. I would never wish things like this to anybody.

I don't even want to speculate right now. I fucking love Massa.

Eye damage reports denied.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/77383

The news for Massa is hopefully only going to get better!

There is a ton of time between the next Grand Prix and for the time being we are only going to hear speculations and rumors flying about.

Somehow some way I just don't see Valencia without Alonso, I think we are going to see the FIA allow Renault to race first, rather than him hopping in the red bullit.

Yeah I can see it being overturned too and a fine imposed instead.

You never know the Spanish fans might get to see Gene anyway.

Yeah, this suspension isn't going to hold. It was just done on the stewards level and not on the FIA world council what have you level.

Preventing Alonso from racing in Spain will be a huge, huge, huge blow to the organizers and promoters and to the popularity of the grand prix in general.

Frankly, I think it's an over reaction. This isn't the first time a wheel has come off an F1 car in a non-crash situation. Hell, Nigel Mansell's rear wheel came off in the pit lane once back when they didn't even have pitlane speed limits and went flying down the highly populated area.

Point is... this is a freak reaction to a freak incident. Nothing more than political strong arming and basically saying "Yeah, hey, don't worry, public. We're going to be "extra safe" now!"

Yeab but Phix there were a lot of safety measure that are around now that weren't back when Mansell was racing - HANS device, pit exit lane, wheel tethers, etc. etc.

The fact for Renault is that the wheel tether is a part of the car that is to prevent a wheel from flying off - essentially they have broken the rules and should be punished in some way.

It's right to say that this punishment is not a measure to prevent this sort of thing from happening again. But sometimes it takes a freak accident to realise that something needs addressing and wheels coming off is a lot easier to prevent than suspension components, I should think!

As many expected, Renault won their appeal: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/77736

The wheel tether is connected to the hub assembly of the suspension, closest to the area where the wheel is mounted. The tethers are only effective because the damage points are specifically created in areas where the tethering mounts will not be compromised. This does not prevent a wheel coming off due to a loose lugnut.

A punishment should be served in the name of safety, as all teams should have an effective method of stopping a driver immediately if he is released mistakenly as they do with having effective methods of changing and refueling cars in record time.

Of course, there's always the suggestion that everybody is human and makes mistakes, especially in high pressure and time sensitive situations. But high profile racing teams always have a fault tolerant system for most human or mechanical error, and it's the team's responsibility to uphold that level of safety and race continuity.

Perhaps a race ban was too much, and very untimely since Alonso is a huge fan favorite in Spain, one of the biggest F1 markets to date. However, I feel that the fine they received isn't enough. Maybe we will see a new rule next season that will order teams to implement a fault tolerant system to prevent unsafe cars from leaving the pitlane. Even in the pitlane, a wheel flying off of a car at 60mph isn't exactly safe while there are many people in the pit lane already exposed to potential disaster.

What I didn't understand is that Renault said the only people aware of the problem were those working on the wheel and there wasn't time to inform the pit wall about it before the wheel came off, which to me (without a full explanation) sounds like utter bullshit. Alonso was half way around the lap before the wheel came off and the pit wall is metres away.

Still at least Alonso gets to race at home.

I think it's a conflict of interest for the team trying to win so disparately to have the sole responsibility of regulating their own actions. Imagine being the pit lane tech that forgot a safety pin or whatever was missing here and have to run over to the lead mechanic with your arms waiving to stop the car. It would be tempting for both the tech as well as whoever is calling the shots at that time to try to slide by.

I guess ideally you'd want a FIA rep (or someone not on the team) out watching every pit to make sure the car passes muster before it goes back up to 100+MPH, someone without a stake in winning or losing.