Safety in Motorsport

Abstract

In the first decades of motorsport, the concept of safety was a foreign word for everyone involved, and death was a more or less accepted concomitant of motorsport. Even the deaths of spectators who were actually uninvolved in the race usually only led to a brief flare-up of indignation. Even the tragic events during the 24 h of Le Mans in 1955, in which according to official information the Mercedes driver Pierre Levegh and 83 spectators lost their lives, did not lead to a rethinking of the subject of safety. People were used to worse suffering from the Second World War, which was just 10 years ago. Only the Mille Miglia, which was held on public roads, was banned after two passengers and 11 spectators died in an accident in 1957. A similar tragedy took place at the 1962 Italian Grand Prix in Monza, where Ferrari driver Wolfgang Berghe von Trips and 15 spectators were killed. Such accidents were favored by the fact that on the racetracks of the time there were no structural separations between the track and the pit areas or adjacent wooded areas and spectator stands.