Sports / Motor Racing |
Coulthard near-miss is timely reminder(Reuters)Updated: 2007-04-06 08:44 David Coulthard provided a timely reminder on Thursday that Formula One can never rest on its laurels where driver safety is concerned. Even though it is now almost 13 years since Brazil's triple champion Ayrton Senna was killed in a Williams at Imola, Formula One has ridden its luck on several occasions since that last driver fatality. Coulthard's collision with Austrian Alex Wurz in last month's Australian season-opener was a case in point and the Briton, whose debut in 1994 came as a result of Senna's death, revisited the incident before this weekend's race in Malaysia. "I think it highlighted just how at risk the driver can be in that kind of situation," he said of a crash that saw his Red Bull car lift off and fly across the nose of the Austrian's Williams -- missing Wurz's hands and head by centimetres. The Scot had been trying to overtake but got his timing badly wrong. "I never obviously, when I started the manoeuvre, ever imagined that I would crash into Alex and if I was silly enough to start that manoeuvre thinking that was going to happen I would never imagine I would come across the cockpit missing him by a very small amount," he added. "So inevitably that is an area that will be talked about and looked at for the future for safety." WILLIAMS CONCERN In fact, it has been discussed already at the highest levels. Team boss Frank Williams, who did not go to Australia and is also absent from Malaysia, was on the telephone to International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Max Mosley in the immediate aftermath. "I've discussed it with Max and Max has got (FIA race director) Charlie (Whiting) involved with our guys to learn about it," Williams told Reuters this week. "It (the car) could easily have taken his (Wurz's) fingers off on the steering wheel as it went across, and also damaged his head. "There's still danger out there," he added. "There will be a close look at that to see what we can do," he added. The Melbourne incident was undoubtedly seen by many fans as one of the few spectacular moments in an otherwise largely processional race and further evidence that the sport has never been safer. Huge strides have indeed been made in strengthening grand prix cars, allowing drivers to walk away from the sort of impacts that would have been fatal in the past. Of the present crop of drivers, only Brazilian Rubens Barrichello had made his debut in Formula One before Senna died that May afternoon. Thankfully, a generation has grown up without ever experiencing such desolation at a racetrack. But head injuries will always be a concern in any open-cockpit series and even the greatest drivers are vulnerable. NARROW ESCAPE Ferrari's Michael Schumacher had a narrow escape in Brazil in 2003 when his car skidded off a rainsoaked track towards a tractor that was removing other cars that had gone into the barriers at the same corner. The German's head would have taken the brunt of the impact had his car slid between the wheels of the vehicle, rather than smashing backwards into the tyre wall as marshals scrambled clear. Coulthard, a former director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA) recommended bringing forward a discussion with the sport's technical working group to see if there was anything that could be done to improve safety in such admittedly freakish cases. "Inevitably in these situations it is when it is brought home how easy it would be to have a serious incident, then it moves up the importance list," he said. "When I spoke to (Williams co-owner) Patrick Head after the event, he suggested it was a couple of years away before they might look at doing something. "But maybe now it could be possible to have an improved cockpit protection for next season already, so that is something to be discussed and agreed and we, as the GPDA, can only encourage them to do that and see what the result is," said the 36-year-old.
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