F1 should never take safety for granted: FIA president Jean Todt

The Formula One world has recently suffered one of its worst accidents in decades at the Japanese Grand Prix in 2014 that resulted in Marussia Racing driver Jules Bianchi lying in a coma with severe head injuries. [caption id=“attachment_190000” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File picture of FIA President Jean Todt. Reuters[/caption] More recently, Spanish driver Fernando Alonso was also ruled out of the season opener (due to concussions) taking place later this month at Albert Park. Alonso woke up thinking he was in 1995 after a horrific crash during pre-season testing in Barcelona that has once again raised the issue of safety in F1. This has led to some Formula One teams threatening to boycott next week’s Australian Grand Prix as speculation continues around the circumstances of McLaren-Honda driver Fernando Alonso’s mysterious testing crash in Catalunya. According to  Sport Bild , teams are not satisfied about the lack of clear information released after the crash, which has caused Alonso to miss the season-opening race at Albert Park for fear of another potential major impact. It has once again sparked up debates about safety in the sport. “We should never take safety for granted or relax on safety,” says FIA president Jean Todt who was in Mumbai on Monday. “I was saying it before Jules’ accident and I am saying it now. There have been many years where terrible accidents have happened and the driver walked away. They have started to think that is normal for a car to crash at 300km/h and for no-one to get hurt, But it was not normal, it was a miracle. Behind all of that has been an astonishing amount of work. But 100% safety in our sport does not exist.” Todt has been a vociferous supporter of safe driving both on and off the race track. “Formula One has been a key player in improving highway safety,” he adds. After the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna at the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, Italy, in 1994, the FIA began a safety campaign for racing like no other motor sport had done before, which has led to a record of 21 years with no driver deaths at the Grand Prix. Those fatalities led the FIA to start a crash test program for their race cars which was then applied as a test program for road car manufacturers as well, leading to higher safety standards by car manufacturers worldwide. “Formula One definitely contributes to greater safety on the road,” he adds. “World over 1.3 million people die every year from road accidents. We know what to do to stop it and how to stop it — now we just need to go about implementing it,” he adds. According to Todt, there’s no denying Formula One is dangerous but the accidents that take place during the race allow the viewers understand the mistakes the driver has made and what led to the accident. Drivers wear proper safety gear- helmet, seatbelt, their suit of armour and they still are not invincible, and this is something he thinks drivers world over need to understand. Citing the example of France, Todt adds that here were over 18,000 accidental road deaths in the 1970’s. But with the implementation of simple road safety measures such as seat belts and the widespread use of air bags, along with improved road standards, we have brought down that number to just over 3000 deaths in 2014.” “Imagine if the government of India would take up this cause, imagine the lives that could be saved by just these simple measures,” Todt added. This simple thought led Jean Todt to start “Action for Road Safety” in 2011 , a global campaign to help the FIA member organisations educate and advocate for safer roads, vehicles and behaviour. The program has received the support of world organisations including the United Nations, the World Bank, the World Health Organisation and the Red Cross. The FIA has released 10 Golden Rules for Safer Motoring as part of the awareness and education campaign. Some of them are self-evident – like the recommendations to wear a safety belt or, when riding a motorcycle or scooter, to wear a helmet, and to follow the rules of the road. But others like checking your tires and paying attention to the driving conditions— echo the kind of precautions that keep F1 drivers safe.