Safety Conditions in Motorsport

The following is an assignment I did in English in 2001. We had to write an essay about an issue. I got an A.

SAFETY CONDITIONS IN MOTORSPORT

"It doesn't exist in motor sport. As a driver you know what you're doing and driving a race car is no more dangerous than walking down a flight of stairs. On a flight of stairs you can trip and hurt yourself; if you 'trip' while driving, you're going to hit the wall. I think it would hurt more to fall down a flight of stairs than it would to crash in F1." - Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombian driver for the BMW.WilliamsF1 Team) on danger.
    In my opinion, he is correct; drivers do know what they're getting themselves into. However, I do dispute that it would hurt more to fall down stairs than it would to crash in F1 (Formula One, the highest league in international motor sport). After all, I think more people have died from crashes than falling down stairs.
    The safety conditions in motor sport have improved over the years. Drivers, marshals and pit crews all wear flameproof clothes, including underwear. There's the safety car that leads the cars around the track at a low speed (when compared to how fast they go normally) when there is debris on the track or other unsafe situations. But not even the safety conditions today can stop someone from dying.
    Date: September 18th, 1978. Event: Formula One Italian Grand Prix - Monza, Italy. At the start of a GP, the starter is meant to wait until all vehicles are stationary before giving the green light. Apparently, the field had become too spread out during the warm-up lap, so the front section of the grid was stationary for an extended period of time, waiting for the others. F1 cars begin to overheat if they are stationary for too long. The starter seemed to become frustrated by the wait and started the race before all the cars had stopped, giving the 'backmarkers' (cars at the back) a rolling start - an advantage.
    Italian Riccardo Patrese flew down the outside of the field as the leading cars battled for traction. This bunched up the entire field, as the cars approached the 'double-S' chicane seconds after the start. Patrese moved in and touched Briton James Hunt's McLaren, which was then pushed into Swede Ronnie Peterson's Lotus. The car went out of control into the metal safety fencing at approximately 180km/h. His car ricocheted from the fence and was hit straight in the side by Italian Vittorio Brambilla's Team Surtees car. Ten cars in all were scattered across the track.
    Ronnie Peterson hit the fence hard enough to destroy the entire front of the Lotus. Trapped, with both legs shattered and crushed, he sat in his vehicle while nearly 200 litres of fuel from the ruptured fuel tanks erupted into flames around him. James Hunt, who was also involved in the accident selflessly rushed into the flames, unfastened Peterson's harness and dragged his very tall (nearly two metres) frame from the wreckage with help from another driver and a marshal. The fire wagon arrived promptly and put out the blaze.
    Peterson's semi-conscious body was left lying on the Tarmac for somewhere between eleven and eighteen minutes for one of seven ambulances at the race. The crowd had pushed onto the track, causing the local police to use force to prevent them overrunning the accident scene. This also blocked the pathway of those trying to help, such as Professor Sid Watkins, the Formula One surgical advisor, who, even with the help of an interpreter, couldn't convince the police to let him through. One of the team managers, whose driver, Vittorio Brambilla, suffered head injuries in the accident, was smashed in the side of the neck with a truncheon, while others trying to help were hit with rifle butts.
    The outlook was promising when Peterson was finally admitted to the medical centre. The six doctors of the track medical team stabilised his legs and measured his vital signs that were amazingly almost normal. He was airlifted to a trauma centre; where he was operated on to secure the shattered pieces of bone and to treat burns on his shoulders. After the operation, he was given a very good chance of recovery. But five hours later he was dead - embolisms from the smashed bone had invaded the bloodstream, blocking capillaries in his lungs, heart, eyes and brain. Ronnie Peterson was Monza's 56th victim in 55 years.
    Monza's problems can be traced back to 1970, the year when Austrian Jochen Rindt was killed in practice and became the first posthumous World Drivers Champion. (That is, the first driver to die before the season's end and win the world championship.)
    Monza's most recent tragedy was at the 2000 Italian Formula One Grand Prix. Everyone was thankful when five drivers escaped unharmed from carnage at the second chicane during the opening lap. But trackside television cameras caught medics trying to resuscitate Italian fire marshal Paolo Ghislemberti.
    The 33-year-old volunteer fireman had paused momentarily after running back to double-check his fire-fighting equipment as the cars approached. Debris from the initial four-car tangle rained down. FIA (Federation Internationale d'Automobile) safety delegate Charlie Whiting couldn't confirm if it was a wheel that hit Ghislemberti, but it most certainly was debris from the accident.
    Paolo Ghislemberti was not the first volunteer to suffer for the sport he loved. At Monaco in 1962, a marshal was killed after being hit by Richie Ginter's BRM. At the South African GP at Kyalami in 1977, the rash decision of 19-year-old ticket clerk, Jansen van Vuuren, resulted not only in his death as he ran across the track to tend to a smoking car. But also that of young Welsh driver Tom Pryce who was hit full in the face at 170mph by the fire extinguisher that van Vuuren had been carrying.
    But the death of a marshal most fresh in our minds (at the time of writing) occurred at the 2001 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park, the first race of the F1 season. The accident happened on the fifth lap. Investigations at the track confirmed that the right rear wheel of Jacques Villeneuve's BAR-Honda was torn off as the car spun violently into the safety fences on the 220km/h approach to the third corner, following the French-Canadian's collision with German Ralf Schumacher's BMW Williams on the fifth lap. By a freak chance, the wayward wheel went through an access hole cut in the chain link fence before striking Queenslander Graham Beveridge in the chest.
    But the worst motor sport accident unfortunately occurred during the 1955 Le Mans 24-hour race. Having voiced his unease at the narrowness of the straight in front of the pits, Pierre Levegh's Mercedes struck the rear of an Austin Healey driven by Lance Macklin on the pit straight of the 42nd lap. The car rammed the bank at 240km/h, exploded, and its engine flew into the packed grandstand, killing 83 people, including Levegh, and injuring more than 100. The race went on for the full 24 hours. Sport car racing of all classes was banned in France, Mexico, Spain and Switzerland. The bans eventually lifted in all countries bar Switzerland, where motor racing remains restricted to this day.
    If that accident was the worst day in motor sport, the 1994 Formula One San Marino Grand Prix was the blackest weekend in history. On the first day of practice, Rubens Barrichello, driving for the Jordan team, hit a kerb in a chicane and launched his vehicle over a tyre barrier and straight into a debris fence. While the crash looked horrific, the Brazilian - who still races in F1 today - escaped with a broken nose and some minor other injuries.
    On the first day of qualifying, then little known rookie Roland Ratzenberger was killed when his Simtek car left the track and hit a concrete barrier at around 200mph.
    Two minor crashes during the race cast a question mark over Imola's (the "San Marino" track in Italy) safety. The race had to run its first few laps behind a safety pace car due to an accident on the starting grid. The Lotus driven by Pedro Lamy had slammed into the rear of J.J. Lehto's Benetton, which had stalled on the grid. Debris flew onto the crowd, over the debris fence and injured nine spectators.
    As the race restarted from behind the pace car, three-time world champion Brazilian Ayrton Senna and German Michael Schumacher drove away from the rest of the field. As the pair drove into the Tamburello curve, a flat-out long left-hand turn, for the first time after the start, Schumacher saw the bottom of Senna's car hit the road due to bumps on the track. He also stated later that Senna's car had seemed very unstable in that corner. The very next lap, Senna lost control of the car at 190mph, jumping the kerb and slamming into an unprotected concrete wall at an acute angle.
    Senna had managed to slow the car to 130mph just before the impact, but even with the strength of the cars, this was not enough, although the safety cell in the car remained largely intact.
    The front suspension collapsed and the front wheel and part of the suspension came around the side of the cockpit, striking Senna in the head. Medical emergency crews were on the scene within a minute and did everything possible to give the driver the best chance of survival. Unfortunately, even with this elaborate attention, Senna was pronounced brain dead before the end of the race, the massive head injuries killing him.
    The reason for his death has never been finalised. It's an event that has stayed in the minds of many, many people - both motor sport enthusiasts and all people that work or worked in the business. It especially affected Rubens Barrichello (who was in an accident that weekend) who viewed Senna as both a personal friend and a hero.
    The track was probably the main factor that killed Senna. Tamburello corner was notoriously rough. There had been some resurfacing, but some say that the surface actually became worse with bumps. As well as being bumpy, there was a creek very close to the track. The result was a need to stop cars before they went into the creek. A corner like this should have a run-off area provided, to allow time for cars to regain control or to reduce their speed before impact. There was no room, in this case, between the track and concrete barrier for run-off. A sand trap was denied - there was insufficient room for it. Tyres were also considered but never used because of their nearness to the track. The only option was a concrete run-off area. Senna was able to use this to slow his vehicle a little. Tamburello Curve has since been modified for safer conditions.
    But another possible factor in the cause of the accident, was the presence of a small, unidentified object on the track surface, seen in front of Senna supposedly just before the entrance to the fatal corner. It has been suggested that the object may have caused mechanical damage as Senna drove over it, but there is no evidence.
    Regardless of the actual cause of the accident, Senna's death has brought a great deal of change into the regulations of Formula One. Many of these were not put into practice until 1998 after extensive research by the FIA. Tracks have been made safer, although some drivers see some new regulations as dangerous. The design of the cockpit now offers far more protection for the driver's head as well as being twice as strong as previous years. The very next year the engine size was decreased to reduce speed.
    As for the death of Ayrton Senna, the only person who really knows what happened that day died in the accident. The truth may never be known and while it was a tragedy, the sport has become significantly safer because of his death. Ayrton Senna will most certainly never be forgotten and will almost definitely be missed by millions - billions - of people worldwide.
    Recently, an ex-F1 driver died. Italian Michele Alboreto was test-driving for Audi's Le Mans bid at the Lausitzring circuit in Cottbus, Germany. Specialists from the independent group DEKRA, investigating on behalf of the Cottbus public prosector's office, were unanimous in their verdict. "All investigations carried out so far show a sharp object went into the left rear tyre which caused a gradual loss of pressure in the tyre," explained a spokesperson.
    Not only have there been deaths and injuries in motor sport, but also race postponements and cancellations. The most recent one (at the time of writing) occurred in late April this year when the CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams - mostly based in North America) FedEx Championship Series event at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth was postponed due to an unsafe situation.
    The main concern was the sustained 235mph speeds on a 24-degree banking. The lateral and vertical (down force) loads put a major strain on the drivers, tyres and suspension pieces, which could have been disastrous over the course of a 360-mile race. The banking's speeds reached as high as 236.9mph. This caused some drivers to become dizzy and disoriented as they suffered G forces (1G = Earth's natural gravitational force) above 5.
    In December, Swede Kenny Brack did some private testing at the course. The maximum speed he did then was between 221 and 224mph. There were no reasons for concern back then.
    Italian ex-F1 driver - now CART driver - Alessandro (Alex) Zanardi gave this quote: "Coming here, all the concern was about the cars, about the tyres, about the engines all holding up. As it turns out, they were all perfectly suited to this fantastic racetrack. As it turns out, it's the drivers, as human beings, who could not sustain the forces of going around the turns." This may have been correct. But the testing was done in the winter, and developments have been made - factors that may have sped up the car.
    Another driver, Brazilian Gil de Ferran, gave his view. "We pull a lot of Gs here we don't pull anywhere else. There are unbelievable forces that put a strain on the drivers and the cars. I wouldn't be surprised to see anyone pass out during the race." 21 out of the 25 drivers responded when CART medical affairs director Dr. Steve Olvey asked how many had experienced dizziness and blurred vision after a long run.
    Fellow Brazilian driver Mauricio Gugelmin - also the president of the Championship Drivers Association - tried to explain the feeling. "To make a matter simple, your blood goes to your socks and it leaves your brain and you start having problems. Particularly if our cars are probably doing 22-second laps like some cars did there, doing the 18-seconds of those laps, you're roughly pulling very high Gs above five in some areas, and in some areas less, and that creates a lot of the problems, basically." Later on, he said: "Feeling dizzy in one of those cars is not a pretty sight." I believe that would be true.
    The race has been postponed, but will most probably be cancelled.
    I'm not one of those people who think that motor racing should be banned. But something needs to be changed about the safety. Here are my thoughts:
    Something really needs to be done about the Monza and Imola tracks. Haphazard safety adjustments are not enough. They should be erased from motor sport calendars for a year or so, when they can spend all year fixing things. Not only are these tracks used for cars, but for forms of motorcycling as well. So track safety can help all sports involved.
    The Texas Motor Speedway is a big mystery. Why the cars were faster in April than December, we may not know. The track seemed to be fine back then, but not in recent times. What is to blame - the track or the cars? In my opinion, it's a combination of the two. The former because of the steep incline and the design that requires no loss of concentration; and the latter because developments are continually being made in motor sport - in the aerodynamics, tyres, etc. The best solution I can think of is to scrap the track from all motor sport calendars indefinitely.
    Fireproof safety seems to be under control. But in case of an emergency, marshals equipped with extinguishers should patrol all major corners.
    The cars are certainly faster now than in past times. This year at the F1 GP in Australia, about 17 out of 22 cars beat the lap record that was previously held. Right now, the tyres are about the only part of the car that's slowing it down - instead of slicks, the tyres must have four grooves.
    And perhaps it's the drivers that are a problem. But there are penalties for overtaking on a yellow flag (when the track isn't entirely safe) and for speeding in the pit lane. But these men are made for racing, not going for a casual cruise around the block. But they are also well aware of how to take care of themselves and others.
    For example: if their brakes aren't working properly, instead of just trying to continue on or hold up the field, they'd try to pull over onto a gravel trap or grass area and hope that that would slow them down.
    In conclusion, I do believe that the safety conditions in motor sport should be changed, but using the suggestions (or other appropriate ones) I gave. The way things are handled now are the best available, although some tracks are certainly questionable. But I'll leave you to decide that.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
F1 Racing magazine - Australian Edition, May 2001
http://www.benchapman.com/project/history1.html
http://www.insidef1.com/ft/ftdt002.html
http://www.insidef1.com/ft/ftdt027.html
http://www.formula1.com
http://www.cart.com

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