The older readers will remember when “Safety Fast” was the motto of the MG Car Company. The T-Types were exported to America after WW II with the underlying promise of safe motoring. Whilst they had no crumple zones, air bags and the like, they did have one thing going for them – they weren’t really fast at all. 120 kph and you were hanging on for grim death as the beam axle front end followed the contours of the road and there was one half a turn of play in the steering, and the wood frame creaked at the driver to warn him of impending warp speed. One of my more amusing friends claimed that the only thing that kept a T-Type together was that the termites held hands.
All that is just a lead-up to the safety situation we have today in F1 and to then trickle down to F2, F3, F4 and finally on to billy carts. I am posing the question “Do we have too much safety features these days?”
Remember that today we have mandated roll cages in open and closed cars, helmets have to be of a certain standard, likewise seat belts, and fuel cells have to be rupture proof. Head restraints (HANS) are de rigeur and now we have the “Halo”. The Halo is a strange upside down W device in front of the driver to stop an object hitting the driver’s helmet (head). The stimulus for this was the death of Jules Bianchi who ran off the track in the rain and into a tractor that was removing another car. Whilst any death in any sport is very sad, without a certain degree of risk, it no longer has spectator interest. It is the old high-wire argument, with or without a safety net. Lions with no teeth in the Coliseum would not attract the crowd to the gladiators display.
Now I am not decrying all the wonderful work done by Sir Jackie Stewart and others, I am merely posing the question are we doing enough over safety or are we doing too much?
Remember of course that I am from an era long gone and safety features were thrust upon us, which we reluctantly fitted to our race cars. Look at the photo of my 10 year old MGA race car. It was my first race and note the roll-over bar, the seat belts and the kill switch. Yes, there weren’t any. However I was wearing a helmet that I had borrowed from another driver who was not in my race. And my short sleeved shirt was immaculately ironed.
As I found that I was being thrown around in the cockpit, I did manage to scrounge a lap belt which was firmly bolted to the floor. The floors in MGA’s were wooden and the seat belt stopped the seat moving around! I obviously needed some lions with teeth.
