Max Verstappen issues ‘always danger’ warning despite safety gains
Max Verstappen has warned motorsport remains dangerous despite safety advances.
Max Verstappen believes motorsport will remain inherently dangerous despite efforts to improve safety.
Verstappen was among the competitors at the Nürburgring when Juha Miettinen was killed, while last week the Dutchman’s father suffered a heavy rally crash.
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Safety standards across the spectrum of motorsport have increased sharply over the years with the number of injuries and deaths significantly reduced.
Even still, it remains a dangerous venture with Verstappen suggesting the outcome of an incident comes down to luck.
“Honestly, it doesn’t really matter, because you can just hit something in the wrong angle, and it doesn’t matter how safe cars are,” he told PlanetF1.com and other media in Miami.
“There’s always bad luck sometimes involved.
“I mean, I can go back home to the hotel tonight, I take a shower, but if it’s slippery, I can slip and break my neck.
“There’s always danger in a lot of things that you do.
“I still think that taking a bicycle around Amsterdam can be very tricky as well, getting hit by a bus.
“Yes, racing is still dangerous, just sometimes you get unlucky.
“That’s just how racing is. It’s very unfortunate.”
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Verstappen’s opinion is shaped by the fact he has raced in an era where there have been few serious incidents.
He made his F1 debut in 2015, the year after Jules Bianchi’s fatal crash at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Since then, Romain Grosjean’s terrifying Lap 1 accident at the start of the Bahrain GP in 2020 is perhaps the best known.
There, his car pierced the safety barriers with the Frenchman briefly trapped in his car as it became engulfed in flames.
Playing a significant role in Grosjean’s survival was the halo, which was introduced to F1 in 2018.
It was also critical for Guanyu Zhou’s crash at the start of the 2022 British Grand Prix.
Verstappen too has been involved in some serious incidents, crashing out at Silverstone in 2021 after contact with Lewis Hamilton, while the pair came together in Italy a few weeks later.
On that occasion, Verstappen’s Red Bull ended up resting atop his Mercedes rival’s halo.
While safety standards have improved across the board, danger remains an element – and arguably an essential one.
Author Ernest Hemingway reportedly said: “There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.”
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
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