Reality Check
Editor of Racecar Engineering, Andrew Cotton shares his thoughts on the events at Spa 6 hours in his latest Cottonballs blog.
Much has been made of the accidents that befell the Dragonspeed and BR Engineering teams at the opening round of the WEC at Spa early in May. It is clear that the teams involved, the constructor and the FIA need to understand what caused the accidents, and what caused the leg injuries to Dragonspeed driver Pietro Fittipaldi.
Fittipaldi crashed his car [see 1min35 in the video below] at Raidillon during Qualifying and suffered lower leg fractures, while Matevos Isaakyan took off and flipped his SMP BR1 slightly further around the same corner. That meant his trajectory took him down the track, rather than into the crowds or into the forest, which was a blessing.
In the case of Fittipaldi, it was clear from the footage of the accident that the lights briefly flicked off just as he lost control. It seems highly likely, therefore, that he suffered a brief loss of electrical power, which would then lead to the assumption that the electric power steering briefly stopped working.

Click here to read the official statement regarding Pietro Fittipaldi

Pietro Fittipaldi crashed the Dragonspeed car at Radillon – could this be due to a power steering failure"
According to one LMP1 driver, navigating the corner with power steering is hard enough. Navigating it without power steering would be almost impossible, and would almost certainly ...