As you must know by now, I am a huge follower of Formula One. I started watching the sport in the black year of 1994 during which Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger died. The injuries caused to them forced the sport to introduce various safety measures over a period of time, the overall shape, styling and safety of the cars now are a world away from how they were 15 years ago, as you can see below. Focus especially on the area around the cockpit and the driver’s head.
However, despite all the safety improvements, accidents can still happen. Henry Surtees was killed a few weeks ago when he was hit on the head by a stray wheel from an accident, and Felipe Massa was injured when a spring left Rubens Barrichello‘s car ahead of him on the circuit. This BBC video excellently explains what happened and shows just how far the sport has come.
Freak accidents will always happen in Formula One, and in any motor sport. The key thing is what is taken away from them, what is learnt. The sport took many lessons from 1994, let’s hope it can learn from these two incidents.
