Its been just over a decade since the fateful day in Suzuka when in a rain soaked Grand Prix Jules Bianchi’s Marusia car slammed into a recovery vehicle whilst the race stewards dithered. The resulting death of the Frenchman was the first since the tragedy of Imola some twenty years previous, where the lives of Ayrton Senna and Roland Raztenberger were lost at the ironically named Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari.
Some might say just three F1 deaths in over thirty year’s is in fact a raging success when compared to the era when Jackie Stewart and Niki Lauda were competing. The movie Rush tells the story of Lauda’s career, his life threatening crash in Germany and his rivalry with British playboy driver James Hunt.
To categorise the risk the Formula One drivers were taking back in the 1970’s, Lauda makes the bold claim in the film: “I accept every time I get in my car there’s 20% chance I could die. What kind of person does a job like this?” he asks. “Each year two of us die.”
Shocking F1 safety in the 70’s
Of course statisticians have since challenged the Austrian’s claims that the risk was this high, working out even in the years with the worst mortality, the risk per race was 0.35%. Yet this grew to 4.4% for a driver taking place in a full season and 20% if a driver’s career lasted five years.
Even so the 1960’s and 70’s saw some terrible deaths in F1 and under the leadership of Jackie Stewart, the drivers began making demands on the FIA that they take safety more seriously rather than acting merely as an arbiter of the rules and regulations.
Now the risk of death for a Formula One driver who has a career spanning some twenty year’s is almost zero, yet the FIA continue to push for safety improvement, the most significant in recent times being the divisive halo introduced into F1 back in 2018.
Whilst now a standard part on a Formula One car, the introduction of the halo caused heated debate and ironically Niki Lauda claimed it “distorted the essence of racing cars.” Three years before he would become world champion, Max Verstappen spoke out against the new F1 safety device stating “it abused the DNA” of the sport which was now “less dangerous than riding a bicycle in a city.
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FIA accept responsibility for F1 safety
Some now believe the responsibility of the FIA to continue bringing more and more safety devices and procedures to F1 is more about being seen to do something on this subject, and given the sport is probably the safest racing series in the world, why the continued extra expense?
The latest ‘safety’ device the FIA mandated the F1 drivers must use is a cooling vest to help the drivers when they are racing in the hottest of ambient temperatures. A scheduling problem in 2023 saw the Qatar Grand Prix weekend conducted in extreme heat and this together with the tack layout having to be re-worked on Saturday, saw multiple drivers suffering ill effects during the 57 gruelling laps around the 5.5km long circuit.
“This is the toughest race for every driver in Formula 1 of our [whole] careers for everyone, no exception. I don’t believe the one that says it’s not,” was Charles Leclerc’s stark post-race verdict. George Russell described the heat as “brutal” and Esteban Ocon spent two laps throwing up inside his helmet just a third of the distance to the chequered flag.
Under the guise of ‘driver safety’ the FIA commissioned the design and build of a cooling vest for the drivers, which was initially mandatory for temperatures this year in excess of 30.5 degrees celsius. Yet with drivers complaining over how uncomfortable they are wearing it in the cockpit, drivers may elect to wear the vest when the temperatures exceed the limit defined by the FIA.
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Cooling vest to be a mandatory safety device
Of course this device adds weight to the overall driver and car package and in the event of any F1 driver electing to wear the vest, thos who do not must add 5kg blast to their cars in compensation.
Lewis Hamilton has dismissed the latest FIA safety device saying he will refuse to use it, considering it unnecessary setting up a potential confrontation with the FIA down the road when the vest does become mandatory. Under the guise of it being for safety purposes the FIA can enforce the wearing of the vest, yet the seven times world champion believes F1 drivers should be pushed to the limit not Molly coddled.
“It’s not mandatory at the moment. I think one of the drivers has used it in practice or something, or testing, and really liked it,” Lewis said. When told the vest had been tried by ex-team mate George Russell in Bahrain, Hamilton was surprised saying, “Oh really? I’d be surprised if he did, because it’s five kilos – you have to add five kilos to the car for it and no one else would.”
The temperatures in Bahrain were below the 30.5C limit, which meant Russell did carry the weight penalty as none of the others were required to at the 5kg of ballast. Russell reported he was comfortable with the vest in Bahrain and the 16C water pumping around his trunk in a cockpit measuring over 50C was pleasant and possibly even improved his focus.
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Russell says vest not ready
However, the Mercedes driver questioned whether at a high speed track like Jeddah this weekend, whether the vest design will work. “All of these pipes around my rib area, it could cause me some issues,” he explained to assembled media in Saudi Arabia.
Hamilton is dismissive of the latest FIA ‘safety’ wheeze, stating “I’ve only had two races in my career when it’s been [extreme conditions],” he said. “My first year in Malaysia, my drink didn’t work and I was dehydrated at the end of the race. And then Singapore last year was pretty brutal. But I love that. We’re supposed to be at the top, the highest of the highs in terms of athletes. It needs to be tough.”
The seven times world champion tries to bring some context to the topic as he reveals, “If anything, the cars today are easier to drive than when I started in F1. They’re a lot heavier. I don’t want to use it [the vest] if I can avoid it. I want to look at how I can prepare better, how I can use a cooling vest before, how I can pre-cool my body, how I can make sure I’m hydrated. That’s a part of the whole process.”
Hamilton accepts he can’t comment on the problems his fellow drivers suffer two years ago in Qatar, because he crashed out of the race early on. Yet with F1 supposed to be the pinnacle of motorsport Lewis believes the athletes should prepare properly for such conditions and that Logan Sargeant having to retire his Williams was due to poor physical preparation.
Hamilton feels F1 drivers should prepare better
“I do understand that it’s tough and we don’t want drivers passing out when we go to Qatar, where [we had] that one race where it was extremely hot for the drivers, which I actually crashed out of, so I didn’t get to do it.
“I think it’s good that they’ve got the technology in there, but for me, it’s not what I want to see in my car. That’s just my opinion.”
The vests need further time to be developed to iron out problems like the comfort of the extra tubes in the cockpit. Yet Hamilton has a point, they are not really for safety reasons, just another comfort device to ease the efforts of the luckiest 20 racing drivers in the world.
The FIA to enforce their use, will have to declare them as devices which improves the drivers’ safety, when in reality it does just make it easier for them to focus in extreme conditions. Yet is that really the point? Playing a video game is less physically challenging than driving an F1 car in the heat, but no one is yet proposing we make F1 a virtual race.
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While talk of a full-blown crisis at Red Bull may be premature, there are certainly signs of unease. The latest revelations, shared by Kravitz during an episode of The F1 Show podcast, paint a picture of a camp that feels undermined by both technical issues and what it sees as unhelpful comments from within…. READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
