The cars themselves have a strong chassis structure and a halo feature around the cockpit.įrom gentlemen drivers to world-class athletes Drivers all wear flame-resistant clothing and boots, full-face, carbon-fiber helmets that incorporate a head and neck support called the HANS device, and are strapped into the car by a six-point racing harness. There is also a dedicated Formula 1 medical team that travels to each race.

Today, all the circuits on the Formula 1 calendar are equipped with hospital-grade medical facilities and spacious run-off areas, wherever possible. This dedication to safety has seen the number of deaths reduce each decade. Since then the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) has put safety at the very top of their priorities. Helmets were not compulsory, and the cars had no seat belts. In 1950, there were no safety measures in place, nor any medical presence, Silverstone’s track was lined with hay bales and flower-topped oil drums, and drivers wore whatever they fancied – from overalls to shirt sleeves and trousers. Fact! Over the last 70 years, a total of 52 drivers have been killed. The Grand Prix became firmly established as the biggest race in Europe, and in 1908 the US Grand Prize (as it was then called) was held on a 17-mile course on roads around the Island of Hope district of Savannah, Georgia.Motorsport is dangerous. The first ever Grand Prix, for which the ‘Big Prize’ was 45,000 French francs (equal to 28 lb of gold) was held over two days on June 26-27, 1906 on a 64-mile course on closed roads around the historic city of Le Mans. From now on, closed loops of roads – circuits – would become the norm. This aspect was to prove decisive in the evolution of racing, because in 1903, city-to-city events were outlawed due to unmanageable public safety concerns. The Gordon Bennett Cup raced on a route that started and ended at the same place, further building excitement and making it easier for the press to capture the stories and photographs that they needed to fill their pages. It all started when American newspaper baron, James Gordon Bennett, seized upon the excitement that new city-to-city racing fostered and through his newspapers, the New York Herald and the International Herald Tribune, and established the Gordon Bennett Cup in 1900 as a new European event.

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