‘Something,’ replied Backhouse pulling out two stools from under the central workstation.
‘Perhaps Sandy should see this, too?’ suggested Straker, and caught the lawyer's attention. Leaving her laptop, McMahon crossed the motor home and pulled out a stool for herself.
‘We’ve found a fair amount of material,’ reported Backhouse. ‘This, though, is a very telling clip of the crash,’ he said pointing at the computer monitor. He pressed Play.
The coverage began with an aerial view of Sabatino's turquoise car in the middle of the screen. She was exiting Turn Ten, close behind the race leader – Yegor Baryshnikov – in the other turquoise car. The footage showed Sabatino beginning her charge down the half-mile straight. It showed her make her move, closing up behind Baryshnikov, slipstreaming in the lee of his rear wing. Then they saw her dive out to the right – and make her approach to Turn Eleven, the long sweeping left-hander.
Backhouse tapped the keyboard to freeze-frame the film.
Using a two-finger spread he enlarged the image and centred it. The car was facing to the right. It was as if they were now directly overhead, looking straight down into the Ptarmigan cockpit. Filling the screen were Sabatino's helmet, chest, arms and both hands on the steering wheel.
‘This here,’ said Backhouse, turning to face both Straker and McMahon, ‘is just before Remy starts to turn in – turning left – into the corner, yes?’
Straker agreed.
Backhouse nudged the footage on by two frames. ‘Now look,’ he said. ‘You can just see – there – Remy is starting to turn the wheel. Her intent to turn is clear; she's rotating it away from horizontal, her right hand has clearly tried to rise. The car is starting to turn.’
Straker leant in to observe the image more closely.
McMahon did the same.
‘At that speed,’ said Backhouse, ‘with such a direct steering ratio, and given the car's impeccable balance, what Remy did just then should have been more than enough to set the car up for the turn.’ Tapping the footage on, he stopped a few frames later. ‘This is three-tenths of a second on, after she's initiated the turn. Look at her now.’
Straker and McMahon leant in closer.
‘Look at her position,’ suggested Backhouse. ‘From having simply raised her right hand and lowered her left, she's now raising her right elbow – her right shoulder has even moved forwards, off the back of her seat.’
Straker's said. ‘So she's exerting herself, is that what you’re saying?’
‘Exactly. Hydraulic-assisted steering on a Formula One car should be sensitive to little more than fingertip pressure. Here, on a part of the track we would expect to be dirty, and therefore far lighter on the steering anyway, Remy looks like she's trying to heave the wheel over – wrestling with it. She's using her whole arm and shoulder.’
Then, putting his finger on the screen, Backhouse slid the whole frozen image across to the left, until the front of Sabatino's car came into view.
Straker saw it immediately. ‘Holy fuck.’
‘What?’ asked McMahon.
‘Look at the front wheels, Sandy,’ said Backhouse tapping them on the screen with the backs of his fingers.
McMahon observed: ‘So she's turned the steering wheel, but her front wheels are still pointing straight ahead. The car's going straight on?’
‘Good God.’
‘But that's not all. Look at this,’ said Backhouse, this time sliding the frozen image the other way, past the cockpit to bring the rear wheels into the picture. ‘We missed this when the film was run at normal speed; we only spotted it in slow motion. Look at this,’ he said pointing to Sabatino's right rear, ‘something happens for a fraction of a second.’
‘A wisp of smoke,’ observed McMahon. ‘What does that mean?’
‘Remy's right-rear wheel is suddenly under-rotating.’
Straker leant back in again. ‘Has she braked, there?’
Backhouse shook his head. ‘We’re still pulling all the telemetry together and so don’t know, for sure. But the brake balance favoured the fronts, meaning that if she had braked sharply enough for the tyres to lock-up, the fronts should have done so first.’
‘If this part of the track was dirty, though – as you suggested – wouldn’t that account for a tyre losing full grip … and locking-up?’
Backhouse nodded. ‘Very possibly, except I don’t understand why it did so only for a fraction of a second?’
‘What's caused it, then?’
Backhouse looked pained. ‘We don’t know yet, and won’t until we see the loading through each brake.’
‘What happens to Remy next?’
Backhouse prompted the film to roll on a few more frames before stopping it again. ‘This is another three-tenths on – and, here, Remy's definitely clocked there's a problem.’
Straker could see that Sabatino's arm and shoulder were relaxed again, having returned the steering wheel to the horizontal. ‘It looks like she's given up on the front wheels showing any sign of response.’
Backhouse nodded.
‘That's pretty significant, isn’t it – that degree of resignation? Is she braking now?’
‘Again, we’re waiting to look at the telemetry.’
‘Go on.’
‘A driver in that situation will hit the brakes, almost as a flinch.’
‘And?’
