When a collision causes a storm……

The world of motor sport is fraught with danger at every corner, it isn’t much of surprise when a crash occurs. However, when that crash involves a formula 1 driver, who was competing in the Ronde di Andora rally, then the world tends to take notice. Motor sport has always been niche sport, its coverage only kept to back pages of any newspaper and sport sections of a news bulletin, only rarely does it get full global media coverage, this wasn’t the case, when Robert Kubica, a formula 1 driver for Renault formula 1 team, crashed his rally prepared race car. The horrific collision, had him rushed to intensive care, in which he had to endure several hours of surgery to both his right arm and leg. Fortunately, Jakub Gerber, Robert’s co-driver escaped unharmed, he described the crash as being serious. This story sent many newspapers in a tail spin, will he or won’t he be able to drive for Renault this season became the hot topic. Which in hindsight did prove to be a touch insensitive, when the state of his injuries were still in question. The reports all differing, some reporting that may not have career left at all, while others even going as far to say Renault were looking for his replacement. It was until Robert Kubica spoke out about the crash that the matter was finally settled. The extent of his injuries read like Stephen King novel, a partially severed hand, huge amount of blood loss, several fractures on both his arms and legs and not forgetting actual memory loss of crash itself. Any observer would believe that he was lucky man to have survived that crash, with the laundry list of injuries and the state in which his car was left in after the crash, but I believe it is a testament on how far race cars have come in terms of safety and crash protection.

In the past, safety was the last thing any organiser or race driver’s mind, it was in golden age of motor racing that one of the most horrific crashes ever witness occurred. The 1955 le mans disaster, tore motoring world apart, it woke up a lot individuals to the fact motor racing needed to be overhauled, so as to never experience another tragedy of that magnitude. Thus cars over the years have been engineered with not only with speed in mind but with driver protection and safety, the best example of this durability and strength of today’s race cars is the Massa crash. The outcome looked bleak for Massa after being struck in head with an errant suspension component, while he was travelling up to speeds of 200 mph, his helmet was so strong that it absorbed 90% of the impact and enabled him to make a speedy and miraculous recovery. 
The adrenaline rushes come few and far between for many of us, but for racers, it's constant struggle, thankfully with technology introducing inventive and innovative ways to protect racer drivers, crashes won’t mean the end for both the career and life of a driver.