As FIA president, over the years Max Mosley received more than his fair share of criticism, some of it justified, much of it not.

In the wake of the spring afternoon which witnessed the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna, the first fatality during an F1 race since Canada twelve years earlier (Riccardo Paletti), Mosley set about bringing the safety aspect of the sport into the twentieth century.

Whilst many claimed his reaction was knee-jerk and the sport was being emasculated, countless drivers since then have had cause to thank him for his crusade.

Reflecting on another horrific crash, unquestionably unsurvivable in previous eras, Mosley admits the satisfaction of seeing Fernando Alonso walk was worth the criticism and hard work.

"You wouldn't know for sure without a detailed analysis but generally speaking those sorts of accidents resulted in serious injury or death,” he told the Press Association.

"Happily that seems to have stopped," he continued. "There are still freak accidents, like Jules, but those sort of serious racing accidents, you do expect the driver to walk away. That wouldn't have been the case 20 years ago.

"This was thanks to Sid Watkins and a team of really competent people and the teams themselves. It needed to be looked at scientifically and that was the big change after Ayrton Senna's death at Imola in 1994.

"It's very satisfying to see Alonso walk away. You work hard and it's very satisfying when you see the results. It was quite an impressive crash."

LATEST NEWS

more news >

LATEST IMAGES

galleries >

Click to go to the main galleries section

READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by The Canadian, 23/03/2016 18:50

"Thank good ness ALonso didn't pancake head first like Greg Moore did. Hoping for better head protection next year. Halo device won't help in that type of accident.."

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

2. Posted by scf1fan, 22/03/2016 16:10

"I don't agree with a lot of their orchestrations in the competition rules of F1, but the one really good thing BE and MM have done for F1, without a doubt, is to have improved the sport in the area of driver safety. I don't know the who or how or why, as far as where the real credit should go, but if you watch the movie "1" I would have to say that Max should get a good share it, perhaps with some fair share for Jackie Stewart as well. When I was young, I watched Swede Savage go into the wall at Indy; it's hard to imagine how we put up with that level of risk. Thanks, now we don't have to."

Rating: Positive (3) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

Alonso crash justifies safety work says Mosley

LATEST NEWS

RELATED ARTICLES

LATEST IMAGES

POST A COMMENT

Post your comment

READERS COMMENTS

Share this page