r/F1Technical • u/Revolver_Oc3lot • 13d ago
Safety How did F1 cars became safer over the years?
I'm asking since the dawn of the sport when there were sadly many deaths every week, obviously there were regulation changes and designs but what were the biggest upgrades to safety per generations (or decades) from the start of the sport to Ratzenberger's and Senna's fatal accidents, I obviously know about the halo that saved Grosjean's life but what were other innovations, did cars became more slower maybe heavier?
Sorry if this question seemed stupid I'm watching F1 since 2021 so I didn't follow years prior
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u/Tricky_Split8350 13d ago
Hans device, monocoque, and halo are the big three I think
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u/pentangleit 13d ago
You’re forgetting seatbelts.
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u/OrangeDit 12d ago
I think in older F1 not having seatbelts were rather a safety feature, since it's better to be thrown out, instead of being stuck and burned alive. 🤔
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u/randomperson_a1 13d ago
I'd put the roll structure over the halo. Halo is just an incremental improvement, roll bar is the fundamental safety device of all open-cockpit cars
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u/Happytallperson 13d ago
> monocoque
the 60s Lotus cars which introduced this were NOT safe.
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u/The_Vat 12d ago
Well....that was more of a Lotus thing than a monocoque thing...
To quote Wikipedia:
"While very innovative, Chapman also came under criticism for the structural fragility of his designs. The number of top drivers seriously injured or killed in Lotus machinery was considerable – notably Stirling Moss, Alan Stacey, Mike Taylor, Jim Clark, Mike Spence, Bobby Marshman, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt and Ronnie Peterson. In Dave Friedman's book "Indianapolis Memories 1961–1969", Dan Gurney is quoted as saying, "Did I think the Lotus way of doing things was good? No. We had several structural failures in those cars [Indianapolis Lotus 34 and 38]. But at the time, I felt it was the price you paid for getting something significantly better."
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u/Tricky_Split8350 13d ago
The monocoque was absolutely a contributing factor to Grosjean walking out of that crash.
Safety innovations ≠ immediately and single-handedly solved the problem upon implementation
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u/Happytallperson 12d ago
The monocoque was not a safety feature. Colin Chapman did not care about safety. It was built because it was lighter and faster.
The modern survival cell is miracle of engineering. The the original monocoques were still death traps.
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u/Boomhauer440 13d ago
The biggest factor in the cars I think is the concept of crumple zones and energy redirection. Modern cars have incredibly stiff driver cells, but outside of that the cars are designed to dissipate energy to reduce the loads on the driver. Instead of being rock hard, the nose of the car or the sidepods will give way and absorb some of that impact energy to slow the car before the hard driver cell hits the wall. It doesn't seem like much but spreading that deceleration over a couple more milliseconds can have a huge impact on survivability in a crash.
I think a much bigger difference has been made in the tracks though. A lot of fatalities had nothing to do with the cars. Drivers died because they flew off embankments or into the woods or into stone walls. And if they survived that, they were trapped in a potentially burning car with no firefighting or medical care ready to save them. In the beginning it was safer to drive without a seatbelt because being thrown out was better than being trapped. Jackie Stewart (who had been trapped and rescued by other drivers and spectators) spent years on a crusade to make tracks safer. He got runoff areas added, safety barriers, proper medical facilities, better safety equipment and training for Marshall's, and got some tracks like the Nordshleife removed altogether. Dr. Sid Watkins did phenomenal work as well to develop and improve those medical facilities and drastically improved the treatment of injured drivers.
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u/ChangingMonkfish 13d ago
Carbon fibre monocoque that keeps its rigidity even as the rest of the car disintegrates, a “safety cell” as it were.
Seatbelts that don’t let the driver move at all in the cockpit.
Advanced carbon fibre crash helmets.
Roll hoops and halo.
Kevlar bag fuel tanks, fires are now very uncommon compared to previous eras.
Nomex fireproof clothing.
Wheel tethers to stop wheels flying around in the event of a crash.
Higher cockpit sides after Senna’s crash.
HANS device.
Much higher safety standards at circuits in terms of barrier design, run-off areas etc.
Much stricter rules to reduce unnecessary risk (for example safety cars or red flags whenever a car is being cleared off the circuit).
Stricter crash test standards.
I think the improvements to circuits and race procedure sometimes get overlooked because the focus is on the improvements to the cars but they’re a huge factor in increasing the survivability of big crashes.
There’s probably other stuff I’ve missed.
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u/mwahlmann 12d ago
Side impact structure Virtual safety car In cockpit fire extinguisher Fire retardant racing suit Crash structures and testing And even the super license system to prevent non qualified drivers to compete
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u/MDethPOPE 13d ago
Every major accident usually has a followup to the safety rules.
After Zhous rollover at Silverstone, they beefed up the rollpoint structure and tests.
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u/Magnet50 13d ago
Materials and construction. F1 cars of old used to have a frame of metal tubing over which the body panels were fitted. The big change in construction was to build them with stressed aluminum or layered aluminum & Kevlar. This made the cars much stiffer and gave the main bulkheads more strength.
Then, in the early 80s, came carbon-fiber. That was a revolutionary improvement for safety and fabrication.
In addition, the engines have been moved from in front of the driver to behind, the fuel tank has a standard location with quick disconnects. Previously the tanks were wherever the designer put them. Some cars had a small tank over the drivers legs, or on either side of the chassis.
Raising the cockpit sides and requiring use of the HANS device has made a huge impact (pun intended). Ratzenberger probably would have lived had he been using one. Senna would not. The Halo and HANS would probably have saved Senna.
In addition, track safety and driver equipment has dramatically improved. I can think of at least two drivers who died because of poorly installed Armco barriers. One driver because he didn’t wear a ‘submarine strap’ between his legs.
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u/The_Vat 12d ago
With regard to the Senna incident, wheel tethering would probably have prevented the wheel coming back into the cockpit in the first place.
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u/Magnet50 12d ago
If the wheel had stayed tethered. They make the tethers stronger over the years and we still see wheels coming off. It’s better than it was, but I think you can’t plan for every impact event.
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u/lukepiewalker1 12d ago
I can't see if anyone else has mentioned it, but I'm going to add mandating that drivers feet weren't in front of the front axle.
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u/Izan_TM 13d ago
cars became slower, MUCH heavier and easier to drive, but there's also some safety features that helped a lot
the newer helmets, seats, headrests and HANS device restrict the driver's head in any crash to minimize the forces on the head, neck and overall body of the drivers, as well as protecting them from flying debris like the spring that nearly blinded or killed massa in 2009
the halo is also a big one from recently, protecting drivers in many scenarios, including acting as a redundant protection in case the roll hoop fails like it did for zhou guanyu in silverstone 2022
the plank is one that directly resulted from senna's crash, as it limits the car's ride height so the cars are not likely to lose control from bottoming out too hard, and the ground effect generated by the floor (or by the floor rake in the flat floor days) is more stable which makes the cars more controllable
also just the overall crash structures are far better designed and their homologation is a lot stricter with a lot higher safety margins
it's not just f1 cars tho, the tracks, even the classic ones, got big safety upgrades, with wider and better designed runoff areas, some features to limit speed in corners where runoff can't be added and way more advanced barriers to protect drivers if they do crash (even modern tire barriers are very cleverly designed to fit any corner's specific crash characteristics
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u/Evening_Rock5850 13d ago
They’re heavier and easier to drive but… the lap records at virtually all of the circuits are almost all in V6 turbo hybrid ground effect cars. And the highest ever top speed recorded are mostly in recent cars as well. I don’t know if “slower” is really true. They may look a little slower because they’re so much more stable but the cars are the fastest they’ve ever been.
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u/Izan_TM 13d ago
yes, I didn't word that part well at all
they didn't get slower, but they also haven't gotten significantly faster when you compare them to the old death traps. There's a max speed a human is able to handle a car at, and the FIA has worked to avoid the cars going over that speed for a very long time now
so they've not been made slower than they were, but their pace has not increased proportionally to what you could expect with modern technology at all
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u/XsStreamMonsterX 12d ago
Speaking of Senna's crash and bottoming out, having a proper safety car that could comfortably keep the cars running a a safe speed that wasn't causing them to lose heat and pressure in the tires is also a thing. For reference, the safety car at Imola in 1994 was a simple Opel Vectra that had to go really slow as it was cooking its brakes. It was so slow that the cars were losing heat and, more importantly, pressure in the tyres, which contributed to Senna bottoming out.
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u/Dizzy_Distribution15 13d ago
i know this might sound like a stupid question but say if the massa incident happened to someone in today's car, does the halo really help or is it more how much stronger the helmets are?
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u/Izan_TM 13d ago
the halo would not help in the massa incident at all (unless he was incredibly lucky and the spring hit the middle pillar of the halo, but that's not its intended design at all)
after massa's crash the FIA mandated a super strong strip to be put onto the top of the visor, narrowing it down and stopping any projectile like the one that hit massa. In 2022, a new helmet spec was introduced that narrowed down the visor quite a lot and made the entire thing a lot stronger to protect against projectiles
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u/Dramatic-Rub-3135 13d ago
Not really a technical innovation, but the introduction of mandatory crash testing in the 1980s.
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u/CSGorgieVirgil 13d ago
Cars are faster now than ever before, so they definitely haven't been slowed to make them safer.
Off the top of my head I can name a few: some time after Senna's crash there is now (Kevlar?) tethers between the chassis and the wheels, to stop wheels flying off in the event of a crash
The Hans device has been mandatory since 2003 to help prevent skull and neck injuries
At some point there was a major change to fuel tanks to make them (flexible?) so they wouldn't be pierced as frequently in the event of a crash
Back in the (70s?, 80s?) there was a ban on magnesium parts (at least for a while, I don't know if that's still in place) as magnesium fires are very hard to put out.
Refuelling was banned in 2010 after a number of (non fatal) accidents in the pit lane involving fuel fires of different severity
Noses were lowered after Mark Webber famously did a backflip in (2010?)
Jackie Stewart famously drove with a spanner taped to his steering wheel after he was involved in a crash which flipped him upside down, and he couldn't get out because of the wheel. Many years later (and Jackie Stewart was one of the big names campaigning for better driver safety), they introduced the quick-release steering wheels.
And if you go back early enough you have some really crazy stuff. Really old school cars didn't have roll hoops.
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u/Evening_Rock5850 13d ago
Rules are a bit part of it. Track design has changed immensely with much stricter rules about barriers and what happens when there’s debris or equipment on track. Heck it wasn’t that long ago that a stopped car with the driver standing outside of it was just a yellow flag.
The things that make the cars faster; significantly better brakes, better aero, better traction; also make them safer. Drivers are much more in control these days.
I would say communication plays a role too. Drivers have radios they can actually hear now; plus dashboard displays to alert them to hazards ahead.
All of that leads to far far fewer crashes today. And when there are crashes; that’s when the much, much better safety equipment the drivers are wearing come in. Helmets, just as one example, have improved massively.
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u/imbannedanyway69 13d ago
Everyone likes dunking on these modern eras of cars as being too big and hard to overtake, but their size is part of why they're so safe to drive. You need space to create a barrier between the occupant and the nasty crash happening externally. Having room to expend to dissipate the huge energies being displaced from a high speed crash is essential to survival and why even seemingly huge impacts like Romain's in 2020 have the drivers coming out relatively unscathed.
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u/PastaSenpay 12d ago
Mostly by getting bigger and heavier. Some safety innovations too like the halo
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u/Happytallperson 12d ago
Firstly, it really should be emphasised, it's because some drivers fought bloody hard for it to be safer. threatening strikes, major campaigns - the 60s and 70s saw a big push for safety by the drivers.
In particular a turning point was the death of Jim Clark. Clark was an exceptionally good driver so it couldn't be chalked up to driver error - it was just a fundamental that the cars were too dangerous.
Tech wise - I think first it's important to understand how the early cars were built, illustrated with Wolfgang von Tripps at the 1961 Italian Grand Prix.
Nowadays, a severe crash will bring a safety review. In 1961 Von Trips crashed into the grandstands killing himself at 15 spectators. On lap 2. They still ran the other 38 laps.
The car was basically a driver surrounded by fuel tanks with nicely flammable magnesium parts to ensure it ignited properly. It flipped over the barrier into the crowd, and bounced back into the road spraying fuel everywhere. The frame basically shatters. Marshalls run towards the burning wreck in ordinary clothes. No-one, not driver or Marshall has fire proof clothing. Medical staff at the circuit? Well, when Jim Clark died 9 years later the entire medical team was one nun with a first aid bag.
These cars do not have safety features. You can see the video here.
https://youtu.be/cP69nWsGtpY?feature=shared
From there....it's hard to emphasise how much the culture has changed.
The cars now have a survival cell - a central tub of carbon fibre that will protect the driver at all costs. The Halo and crash structure above the drivers head will prevent the driver if the vehicle flips. The drivers helmet and neck brace will minimise the risk of broken necks - in von trips era, a Cork helmet was optional.
Circuit design has changed a lot - an earth bank and chain link fence was all there was to absorb von trips. Now it would be unthinkable if any part of a car made it into the crowd. Circuits are much shorter, with closer supervision and high speed medical cars and helicopters.
Essentially, you're almost talking two different sports.
Although also it's not just F1 that's changed - the worst disaster in motorsport history still goes to the 1955 Le Man's 24 hour race.
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u/jvd0928 12d ago
In the early 60s, exiting the car meant using a tool to first remove the steering wheel. Graham hill was stuck in his car after an accident until a fan offered a screwdriver.
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u/therealdilbert 12d ago
it was Jacket Stewart, it was because of the crash he couldn't get out. After that crash he kept a spanner taped to the steering wheel or side of the cockpit, https://i.imgur.com/1gb4RSG.jpeg
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u/custard130 12d ago edited 12d ago
the cars did become heavier, but on its own that doesnt make them safer, its more the other way around. if you just add ballast or something to a car before crashing it my basic physics knowledge is that would just result in hitting the wall harder
adding crash structure + strengthening the monocoque made the cars a lot safer but also a bit heavier (they are still extremely light but slightly heavier than they were in previous eras
there are a few areas of safety though, firstly avoiding things hitting the driver in the head
the halo is an obvious one in recent years, which is intended to protect the drivers head from other cars / large pieces of debris, and has also helped with barriers and tirewalls
the cockpit is also built up a lot more around the drivers head, if you look in the 90s the drivers entire head and even bit of their shoulder is exposed, while now only the front is exposed and even from the front isnt as high above the bodywork
then if something does make it through one of the gaps the helmets are stronger too
there cars are also build not to have dangerous pieces come loose, eg the wheels + tires are tethered so if someone breaks suspension / has a pucture the wheel / tire should stay attached (this is why it is taken so seriously if a team doesnt attach a wheel correctly during a pitstop, because that is one of the few ways that such a heavy component could come free)
circuit layouts, barriers and runoffs get more attention now and improvements to positions of barriers and what they are made of combined with crash structure of the car reduce the forces the drivers suffer in a crash
the drivers also train harder (physical strength) which helps a bit with surviving impacts
in terms of fires,
refueling is banned in part to avoid risk of fire in pitlane
the fire resistance of the overalls is better now
i believe the fuel tanks are stronger now / reinforced so less likely to leak even in a major crash (though the Grosjean incident showed it could still happen)
its not really 1 thing, but rather lots of improvements, when an incident or near miss happens there is a review of what went wrong and what can be done to improve it, eg after Massa there were changes made to helmet designs such as making the window for drivers eyes smaller so more of their head was protected by the stronger carbon composites rather than the clear visor
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u/Danicoptero 12d ago
There's a documentary named "1: Life on the Limit" that covers the evolution of safety in F1.
It's from 2013 so it's a bit outdated, but I still recommend watching it.
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u/KCIMBJGnR 12d ago
One of the biggest factors in safety is Sir Jackie Stewart. The amount of lives that man has saved can probably not be properly counted. And hopefully given his drive with dementia charities now the amount of lives he will save in the future won’t be able to be properly counted in the same way
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u/BloodWorried7446 12d ago
all that have been mentioned.
but also barriers that absorb impact
wheel tethers reduces the likelihood a wheel will become a projectile.
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u/HarryCumpole 12d ago
Not an answer to the exact question asked, however circuits also contribute, as do procedures. Fewer opportunities for direct shots into unyielding walls with better runoff and traps. This of course falls down with procedural negligence at say, Suzuka which contributed to Jules Bianchi's entirely preventable accident and very possibly Gasly also. The combination of car-circuit-procedure has proven to be a strong mitigator.
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u/nickgovier 12d ago
In the 60s seatbelts typically weren’t worn, because in a crash it was considered safer to be thrown from the car than to remain strapped inside a flaming projectile. Seatbelts only became mandatory in the early 70s.
Ever since then there has been a constant drive to improve the protection of the driver inside the car, and also in the past couple of decades to improve the racing environment (run-offs, absorbent barriers, etc).
There are still occasional missteps (FIA Murder Ramps aka sausage kerbs) and it’s sad that it took the deaths of World Champions like Clark, Rindt, Senna to kickstart a lot of these initiatives, but on the whole the FIA and F1 should be applauded for prioritising making the sport safer.
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u/ACDrinnan 12d ago
A perfect example of how they are safer these days, you don't have to look any further than Roman Grosjean's crash at Bahrain in 2020. Honestly, go look it up if you haven't seen it.
Car safety features:
The introduction of the carbonfibre monocoque helped a lot with safety. Protecting the driver inside a safe structure prevents vital body parts from getting crushed or punctured.
The Halo has already proven itself a few times now. Hamilton and Leclerc have both had cars land on top of them and it didn't fail when Grosjean went under the barrier.
Structural parts that are designed to crumple to absorb the force of the impact, instead of the massive G forces being transferred straight to the driver.
Driver protection:
Helmets have been through so much testing and development since the 50's. Back then it, they didn't even fully cover the face.
The flame retardant overalls also protect a lot from the heat.....again, Grosjean in those flames. Only his hands were burnt and that was quite mildly.
The Hans neck brace stops the head from jerking during side impact that can severely damage the spine below the skull.
External crash structures.
It's crazy to think that F1 never even used to use barriers.
You want the barriers to give somewhat to slow down the cars quite well without reducing the speed too quickly causing internal organs to rupture, but you still want them to stop the car from flying into spectators, trees etc.
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u/Gproto32 12d ago
The most major aspect is materials. Yes the monocoques were a huge improvement, but they were just safer than the tubular frames of days gone by when they were just made out of aluminum, not safe, same for helmets and goggles. Composites changed the game because you could really tailor not just the geometry of a part, but its layup to get the characteristics you wanted without a weight penalty. This allowed safety standards to become stricter and stricter over the years without a huge performance penalty. This keeps on going, of course.
More generally, the answer is incremental improvements from lessons learned the hard way, that is how the HANS device, halo, the wording of the rules and every tiny yet critical safety device were introduced.
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u/MajorReality5263 9d ago
Its not just the cars that became safer its the drivers too. There was a time when anyone could race an F1 car but in the 80s a super licence was introduced which only let drivers of a certain standard race.
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