New liveries, different driver combinations, additional circuits and changes of rules. A hell of a lot changes in F1 from year to year. Fans and pundits will debate the above at great length during pre-season testing, however one particular aspect continues to be a constant and in many instances, a point of contention. Is F1 safe enough?
Whilst there’s been plenty of talking points during
pre-season (will the gap to Mercedes be closed? Are the muted changes to qualifying full-proof?), the main discussion and certainly what the majority of headlines have been about is safety, and in particular the changes to the cockpit design. Many teams have composed new designs for 2017, such as the halo concept, to gage whether or not it’s suitable for 2017’s design. The lingering question is, are these changes really necessary?
F1 safety debate rumbles on
can freak accidents be completed avoided altogether?
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Motorsport comes with its fair share of risks. Heavy metallic machinery being driven at hundreds of miles per hour by a human being is dangerous enough, and once you introduce the competition clause the chances of injury skyrockets even further, so it goes without saying that there is a high propensity for potentially fatal mistakes. However, you can also argue that these specific human beings are so well-trained that they are the only ones of a select few in the world trusted enough to even sit in the cockpit in the first place. But even the most proficient of drivers are incapable of escaping acts of God, or Murphy’s Law, for that matter.
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