strad wrote:Do I once again have to post the videos from Button and also Hamilton expressing how after having huge shunts they now realize their car to be SO SAFE they can take even bigger risks?
This is something I've tried telling a lot of people, that the increase in safety actually creates an unsafe driving environment as the drivers believe there is no risk to what they do. Where a driver once would think carefully about the risk/reward of trying an overtake going into a corner where contact is a big risk, they no longer take this into account because there is zero danger to them...or there is a perceived zero danger to them. Once physics takes over, you can never be 100% certain.
At any rate, Hamilton at Hockenheim was a great example heading down to the hairpin when he had that massive lockup trying to outbrake 2 other cars, he wound up making contact there. All I could think, is that had that gone wrong in another era, he would have taken out two other cars plus himself resulting in who knows what.
Racing as a pseudo-combat sport occurred because of safety increases. Chop blocking, dive-bombing, etc. that's the legacy of too much safety.