Safety in Formula 1 was once a hush and repressed topic, with the risk of racing at upwards of 200mph simply accepted as the peril racing drivers elected to place themselves in.

In the early days of the championship, drivers would die year-on-year, and it was almost a cruel given that you would not make it to the end of your racing career without a serious injury or worse. Nowadays however, safety has changed rather radically and for the good of all involved.

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Modern F1 Cars Have A Strong And Indestructible Cockpit

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via: Sky Sports F1

Since 1981, Formula 1 cars' design centered around an integral survival cell enclosing the entirety of the driver's body, designed to withstand huge frontal, side-on, and rear impacts.

It is typically constructed from 6mm of carbon fiber composite teamed with a layer of bulletproof kevlar. This makes it resistant to piercing at speeds of up to 200mph from a variety of angles in FIA's comprehensively thorough crash tests and simulations.

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via: Reddit.com

This crucial component to the modern F1 car has arguably saved the lives of a multitude of drivers, including the likes of Zhou Guanyu, Romain Grosjean, Robert Kubica, Fernando Alonso and Martin Brundle.

In the case of Grosjean's horror accident in Bahrain in 2020, the strength of the survival cell is clear to see - staying completely intact, albeit with the paint burned away, and protecting Grosjean for critical moments from the force of the initial impact and the ensuing fire. Similarly to now-Sky F1 pundit Brundle's 1996 crash in Australia, the engine at the rear split completely from the survival cell, which not only kept the driver away from any possible fire hazard, but absorbed some of the energy from the dramatic crash.

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All About The Headrest And HANS Device For Race Cars

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via: Formula 1

Ahead of the aforementioned 1996 season, in the wake of a thorough championship-wide safety investigation kicked off by the tragic deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Aytron Senna at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, Formula 1 introduced a hugely 'beefed-up' headrest on the car around the driver's head. What was initially a somewhat inelegant solution for some, including Michael Schumacher's Ferrari, it soon became an accepted and rarely thought about safety element.

Drivers often experience upwards of 5G in high-speed corners, and around ten-times that amount in crashes. The headrest reduces the onset of extreme whiplash, neck injuries and skull fractures as the driver's head strikes the side of the cockpit during a crash.

Around the driver's necks and atop their shoulders, since 2003, is the carbon fiber HANS (Head and Neck Support) device. Connected to the helmet at two 'anchor' points and secured to the body by the car's seatbelts, the idea being to secure the head in place in an accident without restricting how much the drivers can look around them in normal circumstances.

The Halo Has Silenced The Doubters Time And Time Again

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via: Evening Standard

The 2018 season saw the introduction of the halo cockpit protection system - seemingly the most controversial safety device introduced to F1 since seatbelts became mandatory after a pioneering push by three-time champion Sir Jackie Stewart for 1972.

The halo was a result of attempts to create a form of cockpit protection in the wake of the deaths of Justin Wilson in a Pocono IndyCar race, Henry Surtees in an F2 round at Brands Hatch, and the death of Jules Bianchi during the 2014 Japanese GP. Felipe Massa's life-threatening accident in Hungary in 2009, when his helmet struck a spring bouncing down the circuit, was further confirmation that modern single-seater racing needed a brand-new groundbreaking solution.

Many fans, team personnel and drivers demanded the championship not to lose its single-seater, open-top racing ethos for something they felt was a step too far in terms of safety. Nevertheless, the FIA forced the halo through, amid further concerns from outsiders over visibility and driver extraction difficulties, with the late FIA safety delegate Charlie Whiting stating at the time: "It will stop a wheel. It will stop large objects and it will protect the driver against incursion from another car, walls, interaction with tire barriers".

It is now an appreciated life-saving part of single-seater FIA motor racing, having seemingly saved the lives of several current F1, F2 and F3 drivers on the world stage, including Grosjean - who incidentally detested the halo upon its arrival in F1 - and Alfa Romeo F1 driver Zhou in last weekend's British Grand Prix.tt

How Motorsports Has Evolved To Protect Drivers And Crew From Fires

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via: Formula 1 YouTube

Fire has always been a pre-eminent threat in Formula 1, with flammable high-performance fuels getting perilously close to mechanics and personnel alike in the garages and during pit stops a particular hazard. Refueling during pit stops was first coined as a possible strategic advantage in a race by Brabham in 1982, but soon became illegal less than two years later.

The sport reintroduced it ten years later but again banned the practice in 2010 on financial and safety grounds. In 1994, a Benetton in the Hockenheim pit lane driven by father of Max Verstappen, Jos Verstappen, had gone up in flames when a fuel hose failure caused fuel to spray over the car and mechanics. In 2008 and 2009, Massa and Heikki Kovalainen were each released from their pit boxes in similar circumstances with the fuel hose still attached - the latter spraying fuel straight onto Raikkonen's Ferrari which quickly caught fire.

Refueling is subsequently banned for good in modern F1, with two second pit stops for tyres and bodywork now the norm.

Permanent Changes To Tracks Have Made Racing Safer

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via: Formula 1

Since Ratzenberger and Senna's accidents in the high-speed, limited run-off first sector at Imola, temporary changes were immediately implemented at certain tracks to slow the cars down as the FIA investigated more permanent solutions. The Spanish Grand Prix saw a tire stack chicane introduced between Turns 9 and 10, and even Spa remodeled its famous Eau Rouge corner with a much-loathed temporary chicane.

Since this period, many existing circuits have established permanent adaptations to barriers, run-off areas or the track layouts themselves.

The use of armco barriers in places where cars will slide along them and not possibly hit them from straight ahead, and a mix of layered tecpro barriers and tyre walls have replaced the use of flammable hay bales and unforgiving concrete walls. Imola's Tamburello corner became a triple-apex chicane, Germany's Hockenheimring was entirely redesigned and Austria's Osterreichring was similarly revamped (under the A1 Ring guise, now the Red Bull Ring).

All circuit designs these days, new and existing, are subject to an array of crash trajectory research and simulations, which has made the locations of the world's fastest and most dangerous sport a lot safer for everyone in attendance.