Safety of F1: 1950’s-1960’s
Way back in the times of Elvis Presley and no seatbelts in cars, the first ever Grand Prix race was held in the United Kingdom at the Silverstone circuit, arguably the most iconic track on the racing calendar behind Monaco. Obviously being the first ever season, the 1950 championship saw no safety changes, just pure racing. The cars themselves were made purely for speed and this helped Giuseppe Farina win the championship of that year with Juan Manuel Fangio coming in second.
Not many obvious changes occurred during the years 1950-1954 as the sport was still creating an audience and foothold for itself, however, in 1955 the following year, the first ever“major” change occurred… disc brakes! Anticlimactic right?
A few more years of racing happened with the addition of these disk brakes, which helped counteract the machines solely built for speed to slow down when approaching corners. Fangio also became a five-time world champion after winning the 1956 and 1957 title, which sealed him the title of “Greatest of all time” for a period of time. The 60’s then came about which saw lots of new and innovative safety changes to both cars and drivers alike.
In 1963 the first ever flags were used, flags such as the red flag, yellow flag and the blue flag. Only a few of the flags we see today were introduced at this time. In fact one of the only flag that was used before the introduction of these new flags was the chequered flag.
Flags introduced to F1 in 1963
Another thing that was introduced in 1963 was fireproof racing suits. Fire was a massive problem for Formula 1 during its early days as fuel would often spill and ignite after a crash and the drivers barely had any protection at all to prevent themselves from getting burnt. The introduction of fire suits became mandatory for all drivers to wear as it allows for some protection so the driver has a chance to escape any flaming wreck they are trapped in. The suits were so effective that they have been mandatory all the way up to the present day.
Finally, in 1968 the very first basic electronic systems arrived and were fitted to the cars, roll-over bars were increased in height to 5cm to help even more with crash reduction, and finally the first ever full-visor helmet was introduced, worn by Dan Gurney, as before this the drivers faces were completely exposed apart from some little goggles that they wore with the exposed helmets . A year later and the final safety change of the 60’s came about. A small fire extinguisher was fitted into the cars to help reduce the effects of fire to the drivers after a crash.