Is F1 Really A Dangerous Sport?
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If you are lucky enough to have attended a Formula 1 Grand Prix in person, you may have noticed the small print on your ticket: "Motorsport is dangerous!" Of course, it is extremely rare for the debris of a car crash to injure spectators in the crowd with the high fencing protection in place these days, but it has happened. For the drivers, the dangers of the sport are much more apparent. Every driver knows he is taking a significant risk every time he steps into the cockpit of a Formula 1 car. So far, the season has seen relatively few big smashes, but the start of the Belgian Grand Prix 2012 served notice that Formula 1 is an extremely dangerous undertaking. The start at Spa-Francorchamps is always tricky, as it is a short run to the first corner and the track is narrow. So when Romain Grosjean veered right into Lewis Hamilton, thinking he was already clear of the McLaren, the results could have been disastrous.
Having clipped Hamilton, his Lotus launched into and over Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari, narrowly missing the Spaniard’s head. "I think we broke everything on top of the car, so it was lucky in that aspect. I did not know what happened until I saw the TV. It was difficult to imagine how the hit could be so big,” said Alonso afterward. "If I had to make a decision, I would stop him for two races because this was the most dangerous act he ever did." As it was, the Frenchman was banned for just one race and fined 50,000 euros for the incident, but the accident again raised safety concerns about head protection in open cockpit racing. There have been a couple of near misses in recent years: Tonio Liuzzi’s HRT mounting Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes in Abu Dhabi last year, with the nose cone narrowly missing the German’s head; and Felipe Massa suffering a fractured skull when a spring came off Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn and smashed into his helmet in 2009. Prior to 1985 there were few safety regulations and no crash tests, but since then, every team’s car must pass a series of stringent tests to adhere to safety regulations. There are five dynamic tests comprising of two frontal impact, one side impact, one rear impact and one steering-column impact, and a number of static tests to evaluate the ability of the chassis to support the massive forces experienced in a high-speed crash. For the frontal dynamic test, the chassis is mounted onto a trolley and fired at a solid wall; for the side and rear test, a heavy trolley is run into the chassis at force and a crash test dummy is also used to measure what happens to a driver in extreme deceleration. The dummy’s chest must not exceed 60g for more than three milliseconds. The side of the cockpit is also subjected to a 30-ton load, which it must resist with no evidence of structural failure. Fires in Formula 1 accidents used to be one of the biggest factors in driver fatalities, but the fuel tanks are now also subject to stringent load tests and the cell is made of the same rubberized penetration-resistant Kevlar material that is used on armored cars. Thanks to this, fires are now a thing of the past in almost all Formula 1 accidents. Believe it or not, so much attention was paid to making cars faster or lighter in the past that little or no attention was paid to the safety of the driver. There's no better illustration of this than in the infamous Honda RA302 that incorporated a magnesium body. It was driven in only one race by Jo Schlesser in the 1968 French Grand Prix as normal Honda driver and former champion John Surtees refused to drive it, labeling it a "potential deathtrap." It was proven on lap two of the race when Schlesser lost control and crashed into banking at the Virage des Six Freres, and 58 laps' worth of fuel ignited instantly, killing Schlesser. Thankfully, safety in F1 has come a long way since then, and today’s F1 cars also carry data recorders similar to those used in aircrafts. After any serious accident, the data is sent to the FIA institute for analysis, and several improvements have come about as a result, including new crash tests and innovations such as wheel tethers and the HANS (head and neck support) device. Now, as a direct result of the latest incident at Spa, F1 bosses hope to introduce additional head protection in time for the 2014 season. The design that is being most actively pursued by F1’s Technical Working Group is an enclosed fighter-jet-style cockpit canopy and forward roll structure. Such a radical innovation would also have to pass stringent crash tests, but McLaren design boss and head-protection expert Paddy Lowe says something must be done sooner rather than later. "We started the project a year ago," he said. "We'll see. Personally, I think something is inevitable because it is the one big exposure we've got. "How many times have you looked at things including today and thought, that was lucky? One day it won't be lucky and we'll all be sitting there going: 'We should have done something about that.'" Until then, drivers will have to rely on the judgment of their fellow racers, trust in the strength of their machines and, simply, as with Alonso’s case over the weekend, just ride their luck. Because whatever safety measures are taken, accidents will still inevitably happen. That is the nature of the game. Motorsport is dangerous.
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