Earlier this year the world of motorsport lost another innocent life. Towards the end of the penultimate round of the Verizon IndyCar series at Pocono raceway the leading car of rookie Sage Karam spun, striking the wall with a hard hit. British driver Justin Wilson, who raced in Formula One with Minardi and Jaguar, was half way through the pack when a large piece of debris from Karam’s car struck him on the head. Wilson was knocked unconscious and crashed into the inside wall. Wilson died the next day. Justin Wilson, a winner at Texas Motor-Speedway, isn’t the only open wheel driver to be killed in recent years.
Another British driver called Dan Wheldon passed away in 2011 after a huge pile-up in the final race of the IndyCar series at Las Vegas Motorspeedway. On lap thirteen Wheldon collided with another driver, sending him flying into the fence. Wheldon was killed when his head made severe contact with the fence.
One year ago at Suzuka, Marussia driver Jules Bianchi spun out of control and collided with a removal vehicle at immense speed. Months later it was announced that the promising Frenchman, who recorded Marussia’s only ever points to finish with a 9th place finish in Monaco, had been killed due to his injuries. This was the first Formula One death for twenty-one years, the last being the legend Ayrton Senna at Imola 1994.
These events spark the argument of ‘should sports such as Formula One look into using closed cockpits?’ There are positive and negatives to this, the main positive being that it would protect the most vulnerable part of the body – the head. Cars used in the Le Mans series have closed cockpits and are a similar build to Formula One cars. It’s not impossible for F1 cars to have closed cockpit cars, but there is one large concern. If a fire occurs within the vehicle it will be difficult to get out, this will leave drivers at huge risk. Accidents such as this have happened with closed cockpit cars. We have got to accept that motorsport will never be safe, accidents will always happen. Cars are getting safer, but they’re also getting faster and harder to control. Drivers are becoming more and more willing to risk themselves in trade for glory and success. Risks are why we love the sport, what if no one went for that near impossible overtake, or that risky pit strategy, or if no one wanted to brake that little bit later. We’ve got to accept that those risks are always there.
The sport is always getting safer, but no one’s perfect. People make mistakes, but sometimes those mistakes are heavily punished. But this is the sport we love.
