(Sauber F1 Team)
The safety standards and improved crash structures of Formula One cars in 2014 proved to be instrumental in both Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Sauber's Geido Van Der Garde walking away from separate crashes without serious injury. During Sunday's British Grand Prix, Raikkonen crashed heavily on the Wellington straight at approximately 150MPH. The Finn was able to get out of the car and reported pain in his ankle's but a later x-ray showed no broken bones just heavy bruising.
As a result of the crash, Raikkonen missed this weeks test in Silverstone as the team opted to rest the Finn so that he will be fully fit for the German Grand Prix next weekend.
Giedo Van Der Garde walked away from his massive crash at Copse corner uninjured and the fact that both he and Raikkonen walked away from high speed accidents is testament to the recent improvements in safety standards in Formula One.
Safety standards in Formula One have been improving constantly since the tragic deaths in 1994 of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna. Since 1994, there have been no driver fatalities in Formula One and this is done to the work that Professor Sid Watkins, the FIA, and Formula One as a sport have done to make the sport safer.
Raikkonen's crash was recorded by Ferrari as a massive 47G with a side impact registering 26G. When you look at Raikkonen's crash and he walked away from it with no more then bruising compared to Michael Schumacher's crash at the 1999 British Grand Prix where the German broke his leg, it is incredible to see how far the safety of Formula One has come in 15 years.
As the Formula One documentary 1 Life On The Limit showed the sport has improved safety substantially with car's now fitted with hundreds of sensors which provide team's with real time data and telemetry readings which allows team's to pin point where problems might occur with a car and this includes tracing the cause of a crash.
© Ben Johnston 2014
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