15/04/2011
NEWS STORY
Following Sergio Perez' Malaysian Grand Prix retirement, the Sauber F1 team is concerned about cockpit safety standards.
The Mexican driver retired from the Sepang race when his car was damaged by unidentified flying debris. But an investigation into the accident revealed that Perez was lucky to escape from the incident uninjured.
The Sauber's chassis was penetrated by the piece of debris, which cut into one of the protective panels and only stopped its destructive path when it lodged in the electronics control unit.
Speaking to reporters in the Shanghai paddock, Sauber technical director James Key (left) explained that the team had sent photographs of the damage to the FIA, with a view to initiating a review of cockpit safety standards.
"We have got panels on the car this year which are designed to protect the driver," he explained. "The debris went through that panel but obviously it slowed the thing down, so it worked.
"We advised the FIA of what we found after the race," Key continued, "and I've since sent them a couple of images of the chassis now that all the bodywork, etc., has been removed. I've suggested that we perhaps discuss it further.
"It's a bit of a one-off," he concluded, "but it shows that things can happen that perhaps we didn't expect."
While the FIA has made great strides in improving driver safety since Ayrton Senna's death at Imola in 1994, the random chance element of risk is a hard one to eliminate.
In 2009, Felipe Massa was injured in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix when he was hit on the head by a spring that had fallen free of Rubens Barrichello's car ahead. The Brazilian driver spent several days in a medically-induced coma, and there were concerns he would lose his eyesight.
Shortly before Massa's accident, Formula 2 driver Henry Surtees was killed during a race at Brands Hatch when a competitors' wheel broke free of its tethers, bounced along the track, and hit the young driver on the head. Surtees was treated at the side of the track before being moved to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Had Perez been hit with the debris that devastated his car, there is no telling what might have happened to the young driver.
"It could have been serious if it had hit the driver, for sure," said Key.
Key is concerned that, based on his driver's experience, the cockpit survival cells are not as protective as they could be.
"We have to be a bit careful that we can't knee-jerk to everything that happens," Sauber's technical director said, "but we have to take things like this seriously and look at how you protect a driver in the future. This isn't something we had seen before and it needs to be looked at."