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Source: GPUpdate.net

Less than a week before qualifying at the Hungaroring the world of motorsport witnessed a tragic accident when 18 year old Formula 2 driver Henry Surtees was struck on the head by a lose wheel from another car and later died in hospital. 6 days later, during the second round of qualifying at the Hungaroring Felipe Massa was struck on the head by a heave spring that broke free from Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn BGP1. Thankfully, Felipe Massa survived the accident which saw him plunge head on in to a tire wall at high speed.

Many questions have been asked about the safety of open wheel and open cockpit racing and what can be done to improve it. I think it’s pretty much a fact that the current high standards saved Felipe Massa’s life potentially his racing career. Considering the freak nature of both accidents I think it will be a tough challenge to improve standards to such a level that a driver could walk away unharmed from such an accident. I personally believe a lack of yellow flags at the corner should be reviewed, considering there were 4 seconds between Rubens and Felipe (a fair distance in F1) and the debri was not hard to see on the TV footage. Still, it’s all to easy to look back and point fingers, changes are already being made with improvements to helmet design being amongst them.

The race proved to be as suprising as Alonso’s pole position in qualifying with Lewis Hamilton taking his first win of the season and first win as world champion! A botched pitstop put Alonso out of the race after he was released from the pits with an insecure wheel which eventually broke free. The Renault team have been banned from competing in Valencia as a result on the grounds of releasing an unsafe car from the pits and failing to notify the driver of the situation. Unfortunately it is clear Renault are being made an example of to show the world that something is being done to prevent dangerous debri on circuit. Is it fair? Not really as we’ve seen plenty of loose wheels in F1 before and rarely has such a strong penalty been handed out as a result. Even more unfortunate is the fact the spanish home crowd at Valencia have been robbed of the main attraction, Fernando Alonso. I expect there will be all sorts of protests at Valencia, we already know how much spain love Alonso after the events that transpired while he was at McLaren.

Amongst everything else that’s happening in F1 at the moment lets not forget that Jenson Button is still leading the championship! Let’s hope Brawn GP can overcome the recent problems they’ve faced and finished ahead of Red Bull.