Driver safety
Throughout Formula One’s history, regulations have changed drastically, always with the aim of increasing the safety of drivers and spectators. The following tables provide an overview of the most important changes in the official FIA regulations from the very beginning of F1 to the present day.
Related Articles
The full list of Formula 1 drivers who died during some racing event is here. Check my article about improvement in racing car safety year by year Check my article about improvement in track safety year by year Article about general safety in Formula 1 you can find here
Driver Safety Regulations
When the World Championship began in 1950 there were seven races, 76 registered drivers, and just one winner – Italian “man of steel” Nino Farina. The formula for the sport was simple in 1950: cars were not limited by weight and could use naturally aspirated or turbocharged engines fixed at the front of the car. By 1955, engines began to move towards the rear; in 1968, aerodynamic wings appeared on the cars; and in 1981, the carbon fibre chassis was invented.
While technology and its crossover to commercial road cars have radically altered the design of Formula 1 machines, the drivers themselves have remained fundamentally the same. The style of racing and the endurance and strength required have changed, and drivers have evolved, but they are the same type of people. The competitive instinct, the love of speed, and the connection with machinery have not changed over the years. Out on track, it is still one person in a machine trying to extract the maximum from it – now, just as in the 1950s.
1963 - 1967: Protective helmet and overalls obligatory.
1968: Recommendations on seat harnesses, fire-resistant clothing, shatter-proof visors.
1971: Max. 5 seconds for driver evacuation from car.
**1972: **6-point harness Drivers’ Code of Conduct published.
1973: International medical card & examination for all drivers. The pace car was used for first time during the Canadian Grand Prix.
1975: FIA standard for fire resistant clothing.
1977: Helmets must be to FIA-approved standards.
1978: Licence qualification requirements, F1 “Superlicence” required. Sid Watkins become Formula One’s official doctor at each event
1979: Life support system (medical air) obligatory.
1981: private car entries were banned (known in the world championship as privateers)
**1983: **McLaren and Lotus debuted cars featuring CFRP (carbon fibre reinforced polymer) chassis
1989: Drug testing on IOC model, introduced.
**1993: **Severe end-of-race crowd control measures imposed.
1994: head rules were imposed to enforce a headrest behind the drivers head firstly with a minimum area, then with a minimum thickness.
1994: Approved helmet standards reduced to 3 most stringent (Sell/BSI/SFI). Ear - phones banned; weight 1800gr max. Check-tests made on clothing and helmets in use. **
1994:** Ayrton Senna was killed at the San Marino Grand Prix, a day after Roland Ratzerberger also lost his life in an accident during qualifying. The tragedies triggered a drive to improve safety standards and they were the last drivers to die at the wheel of an F1 car.
1995: 3-inch wide seat harness shoulder straps obligatory. F1 drivers Super licence criteria more stringent.
1996: Safety belt release lever must point downwards.
1996: Introduced obligatory cockpit headrest padding and higher and padded cockpit sides, with design tightly governed by the FIA regulation, as a result of crash tests carried out to investigate the mechanic of crashes in F1 cars. Initially the rules used a line in between the front and rear roll hoops to define the position of the padding, with 75mm wide pads being required either side of the drivers head. Later regulations evolved to make these designs longer (reaching the steering wheel), the front and side pads made from one piece and padding has been widened to thicknes of 100mm. As demanded within the rules the padding must be Confor foam. This foam is relatively soft when touched, but when subject to a severe blow the foam hardens to absorb the load and is then slow to bounce back. This characteristic protects the driver from both the initial blow and any whiplash response.
1997: FIA supervision of conditions for private testing.
1998: Two shoulder strap anchorages recommended. Driver must be able to exit and replace steering wheel, in 10 seconds.
1999: Highly visible gloves recommended for signalling start line problems. “Marshal information Display” lights system to be fitted in cockpit. Seat belts must comply with FIA Standard 8853-98.
**2000: ** Additions to the Drivers’ Code of Conduct, Appendix L, Sporting Code: defensive changes of direction; pit exit lines.
**2001: **All the extrication seats must be removable with the same tool (or none) and without cutting the seat belts.
2002: raised cockpit sides to protect driver head
2003: Obligatory use of HANS and energy-absorbing foam around the F1 cockpits. Introduction of a layer of Kevlar to prevent monocoque intrusion.
2011. after Felipe Massa’s freak accident in qualifying in Hungary, a new standard for helmets was introduced, which features a skin of two layers of carbon-fibre and one of Kevlar on top of the fireproof absorbent foam on the inside, and the addition of a strip of Zylon on the visor. It has a tensile strength 1.6 times higher than Kevlar and is said to make it essentially bullet proof.
**2014: **introduced penalty point system for drivers. If a driver accumulates more than 12 points he will be banned from the next race.
On 5 October 2014, 25-year-old Marussia driver Jules Bianchi suffered a “severe” head injury during the Japanese GP, when in heavy rain his car aquaplaned, left the track, and ploughed into a recovery vehicle that was removing Adrian Sutil’s Sauber, which had gone off at Turn 7 of the Suzuka circuit a lap earlier.
Bianchi, who was unconscious, was transported by ambulance to the Mie Prefectural General Medical Centre in Yokkaichi, 10 kilometers from the track. A CT scan revealed that he had suffered a “severe” head injury and he underwent emergency surgery before being moved to ICU. He remains in ICU at the Mie Prefectural General Medical Centre having undergone surgery, and is in a “critical but stable” condition . FIA head of communication Matteo Bonciani revealed that the Frenchman is in a “critical but stable” condition. Few days later family of Jules Bianchi have issued an update on his condition and revealed that he suffered a diffuse axonal injury and is regarded as “critical but stable”. A diffuse axonal injury is not the result of a blow to the head, but rather is caused by the brain moving back and forth within the skull as a result of extreme acceleration or deceleration. The injury is very common in automobile accidents. The movement of the brain within the skull causes lesions to the brain tissues, which cause permanent damage to the brain. My thoughts are with Jules and his family. |
**2014: **After Jules Bianchi’s accident, the FIA imposed the ‘virtual safety car’ rule to ensure drivers slow for warning flags in certain incidents. That would mean drivers being limited to certain predetermined lap time in the event of an incident that would previously not have been regarded as needing a safety car. It is an extension of the system currently used when a safety car is deployed, when drivers have to slow down to a certain level while waiting for the safety car to pick up the leader.
Bianchi died on Friday night, 17 July 2015, at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire in Nice, nine months after suffering serious head injuries in the crash at the Japanese Grand Prix. His funeral was held on the morning of 21 July 2015 at the Sainte Reparate Cathedral in Nice.
The Ongoing Challenge
Assuredly, at some point or other, circumstances in F1 will come together to kill again. We never know when that might be. You cannot make motor racing 100 percent safe. What has been achieved in F1 in the last 30 years is extraordinary, but we must never forget that every time a driver steps into the cockpit of a racing car, they are at risk. They accept that and, if not, they walk away. They have the choice. Big accidents still happen – and always will – but today the consequences are different. The drivers are unhurt after an accident that would have killed them 40 years ago. That has happened because of advancing technology and a willingness to learn and do things differently.
2016: F1 cars will feature increased safety measures this year after teams were tasked with increasing the height of the cockpit’s side protection by 20mm and strengthening the area to withstand a force of 50 kilonewtons (up from 15 kilonewtons last year). In order to improve analysis of any accidents, drivers must now wear in-ear accelerometers during every session of a race weekend and all multi-team tests. Every car is equipped with a high-speed camera in front of driver, recording driver head movements.
2017. the new system with the blue flags that will appear on the cockpit of the driver that is receiving the blue flags introduced during Brasilian GP at November 12th.
2018: addition of FIA-driven mandatory of the “Halo” cockpit protection device. Its introduction was pushed through by the governing body - on safety grounds rather than through a standard vote.
