any accident, or at least the most serious ones in the history of this sport, he went to school. Initially, life was one of the prices to pay for racing these cars. The highest but still acceptable. The danger was imputed to mere fate. Nothing could avoid certain fates - tacitly accepted - except one's own destiny. Heroes without weapons, and without armour, except that of courage. With time and so many tragedies behind him, recklessness gave way to conscience, to the realization that safety did not distort the racing and that the risk, however difficult to eliminate, could have been reduced. Despite the happy ending the incident of Zhou a Silverstone proved once again, that the only step to push progress to take a further step in safety, is to brush against tragedy.
It went well, twice thanks to the Halo
We are used to taking too much for granted that motorsport is not an extremely dangerous sport. That everything has already been done to make it a safe sport. One of the symbols of this progress, which has now drastically reduced risk percentages is was the absolute protagonist at Silverstone. Widely criticized by the pilots themselves and by names of all prestige, such as that of Niki Lauda, the Halo, with its 9 kilograms of weight, This weekend saved not just one life, but two. An ugly appendage, considered useless and unsightly by many, but which in reality can support the weight of ten Fiat Pandas and resist the impact of an F1 wheel shooting at 225 km/h.
The accident in F2
On Sunday someone really put a helping hand from above and protected two lives. The first accident comes in the morning, with the Feature Races of F2. Dennis Hauger, which took off over a bollard, after a previous contact with Roy Nissany, flew over and hit the Israeli pilot's car, saved by the Halo. At first glance this episode brings us back to Monza 2021. Right in the temple of speed, the RB16B by Max Verstappen, always after impacting with a bollard she found herself on top of the car Lewis Hamilton. A guillotine weighing almost 800 kilograms that arrives at full speed in a fraction of a second. From that accident, Lewis also bore the marks on his helmet, kissed by the Dutchman's wheels. But these are not the only cases in which we risked a real beheading.
Leclerc, Grosjean, Hamilton, Nissany, Zhou. If it wasn't for the Halo we would have mourned them one after another.
200 meters upside down
Zhou's car, after one mad run upside down about 200 meters it had stopped between the barriers made of tires and the railing that protects the public. The Halo protected him from roll bar failure throughout the race, from the arrival on the gravel and the final impact. Russell's instinctive and desperate rush, president of the GPDA, the union of Formula 1 drivers that takes care of safety, who headed towards the crash site was perhaps the most beautiful and at the same time heartbreaking thing we have seen in those situations we were hoping for to have only good news. It reminded us that as crazy as this sport is, everyone should do their utmost to make it safe, and protect each other.
Still too many questions
Silverstone has left us a lesson but also many questions. How was an element introduced for safety criticized for its aesthetics? Why did another element created to protect the driver from accidents in which the car roll over – namely the roll bar – disintegrate like a breadstick, leaving a streak of red paint on the asphalt at Silverstone that would make your skin crawl? Why weren't the drivers who had warned the Federation of the presence of some demonstrators on the side of the track returned to the pits while awaiting the arrest of these madmen?
Perhaps the answer that unites all these questions is that however far we have come, there is still more to go. That stricter checks than crash tests should be done. That trying to achieve maximum safety should be not just a moral obligation but a natural instinct, just like what Russell pulled out. Because "it could have been worse" is a circumstantial phrase that smacks of resignation. One of those phrases that doesn't differ much from those of the past, but which should make us think about the road that Formula 1 should take to make another progress.
