@Rock Hardy
While you're certainly entitled to your opinion, your opinion is perverse.
Motor racing is dangerous and always will be, and it is part of the allure. Safety is about minimizing risk. There's only so much you can do, but those things must be done. However, you're traveling in a machine potentially going 200mph, you can die. No one should ever think otherwise. That certainly applies any other racing series including karts. Racing will never be a no-risk sport, so let's not jump the chasm of equating safety with no-risk. It's not the reality of it.
Everyone loves a good accident, but there are very few people who need serious injury or death accompanying it to give the sport legitimacy. That's fucking twisted.
Drivers being struck by debris are fluke events. You don't change the essence of the sport over every fluke. And how far down the line do we sanction such kneejerk changes anyway? Karting is dangerous at very low levels. Do the safety mongerers not care about those feeder series, where the danger is just a high, but the exposure isn't?
Accidents are fluke events by their very nature. OK, some are more flukey than others, but they all deserve some level of scrutiny especially if there are unusual circumstances. Often times it's minor things that go overlooked, but have dire implications in an accident.
I feel so old because I remember when this sport was legitimately deadly. We've reached a happy medium IMO. If you remove the spectre of death, you drastically diminish the interest. Because then you'll just encourage boneheaded drivers to take unreasonable risks, whereas now they're curtailed by the real possibility that death can result. Just look at the asshats populating the NASCAR grid. No bleeping thanks.
You're perverted. Sorry. Poor driving can be combated in a much more humane way than hanging death over people's heads. Throwing people out of the sport would accomplish the exact same thing. Allowing them to kill themselves instead is barbarism.
However, the last few deaths I can remember have been fluke. Hell, even Greg Moore's tragic death was a fluke. You don't legislate out fluke. Why exactly do we need closed cockpits again? How low of a level do you think these closed cockpits should be implemented? You realize karts are all open cockpit from the lowest levels up, right?
Greg Moore's death was not a fluke. There's a reason they paved the Fontana infield, and many other tracks have done the same. It's dangerous, and could happen again. There's a reason they don't do 240mph at California anymore. It's dangerous, and could happen again. Contributing factors to death that added no benefit to racing whatsoever. Get rid of them. Why wouldn't you?
Buffer style safety crusades are great, right up until they make a sport you love suck. Debris strikes were less of a concern when cockpits were more exposed in the 80s and 90s. You know why? There weren't a few high profile incidents that caused social media to chirp up. These are fluke events. Tragic as they are, we need to accept that we watch a tragic sport. The massive increase in safety regulations has made some forget this fact so that when the random oddball event happens, suddenly there's a need for new rules. It's completely reactionary, and that's almost never the source of great policy. It's much like the virtual safety car was implemented because one driver didn't use discretion in the wet.
Nope. Debris strikes were less of an issue in the 80's and 90's because there were two cars on the lead lap, and half of the rest of the field dropped out with a mechanical. Justin Wilson was the 12th car to go by an accident that was over and done within a few short seconds.
Virtual safety car - modern racing doesn't afford discretion when it comes to pace. If you're not driving to gain an advantage at all times, you'll be out of a job in short order. It's up to the governing body to provide a safe racing environment for drivers, crews, fans, and marshals. Remember when none of the major series had pitlane speed limits? It was only the 90's. The idea of no limit seems insane now. Completely unnecessary.
What makes a great overtake great? It's toeing the line between disaster and glory because pushing a car on the limit while going wheel to wheel can result in a terrible accident. That's thanks to the open wheels. What makes the Arnoux vs Villeneuve battle so legendary? Because one wheel wrong and someone could well have died.
Complete bullshit unless you've got bloodlust. The potential for death has nothing to do with that battle whatsoever. Crashing? Yes. Death? What the hell's wrong with you? Do you even like racing?
I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I don't try to pretend that the danger isn't a big part of the appeal. F1 races are largely boring affairs. We watch for those edge of the seat moments. We're on the edge of our seats because the stakes are much higher in open wheel than fendered cars.
Nah, I don't think you do. No appreciation for the craft of racing. Just death defying stunts.
I remember a CART race in Canada where a car went airborne and got shredded on the chain link fence before watching the driver's lifeless body slumped in his exposed tub. If the wheels were shrouded like lower kart series, that would've never happened. But hey, social media want around then, or we might well be watching cars with nerf bars. Or in my case, not watching anymore.
Jeff Krosnoff was killed because his car stuck a tree on the other side of the fencing. They cut the tree down which was the correct course of action. Open wheels didn't kill him, the tree did. A marshal was killed too because he was in front of the catch fencing, not behind it. You guessed it, they made the right decision and moved marshals behind the fencing at all times.
I won't let the facts get in the way of your bullshit story though.
If you haven't guessed by now, I found your posts pitiful.
