Jean Todt claims Interlagos is safe despite some fatalities in 2011 – Formula 1 news
Jean Todt, the president of the International Automobile Federation (FIA), recently claimed that despite some recent fatalities at the circuit, Interlagos is safe and that he is quite sure that everything during the 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix will run smoothly.
“We are aware of the incidents that occurred at Interlagos in another category. We made detailed inquiries about the cars (involved in the crashes), not the track. Everyone can rest assured that all measures will be taken to avoid repetition of such accidents,”
Todt told the media.
In April 2011, two stock car drivers died after fatal accidents at the legendary Interlagos circuit as a result of which there was a lot of speculation regarding the safety of the track. Since Formula 1 cars are even faster and the drivers in the sport push
to the very limit, there were rumours that the track might go through some changes in order to make it safer.
It seems that Todt on the other hand is pretty much satisfied with how things are at Interlagos at the moment and stated that Formula 1 is much safer than any stock car event and that the sport has not witnessed a single fatality since the past 17 years
now.
“For 17 years there have been no deaths in Formula One. We know it is a dangerous sport, but the FIA works constantly to avoid problems like accidents and to reduce the risks,” he added.
However, there have been a lot of accidents in Formula 1 during this time that were near fatal. The most recent near-fatal accident was of Felipe Massa during the Hungarian Grand Prix where a flying spring from the car ahead struck his head.
He was unable to take part in the sport for the rest of the year but still one has to admit that the officials of the sport are making the sport as safe as possible and these sorts of incidents are a part of Motorsports.
Tags: