13/03/2018
FEATURE BY MAX NOBLE
A week is a long time in politics, thus the 6,916 weeks (and counting...) since Karl Benz invented the first motor car (back in the care free days of 1885) is truly an age.
Spanning three centuries, a number of generations, and the global discovery of World Wars, Penicillin, Kylie Minogue and Facebook. Oh, and we went to the Moon, broke the Sound Barrier, invented the Transistor, eliminated many forms of infant death, curtailed the spread of many other forms of death, and with ever increasing zeal have henceforth proceeded to wrap what remains in cotton wool.
Cotton grave cloths have been found in Huaca Prieta in Peru believed to date back a far as 2500BC. Certainly the Egyptians were using cotton by 700BC, and the Umayyad conquest of the Iberian Peninsula and Sicily around 711AD helped introduce cotton to Northern Italy and then the rest of Europe.
Handy stuff it was too. Clothing many, and placing coats and blankets around others. A valid and welcome protective layer.
All was well with the world, and cotton, until 1937 when Joseph A. Voss invented a machine capable of generating cotton pads and cotton balls, introducing them to the mass market, outside of the application of gold leaf, for the first time. It was here, after many thousands of great uses, and a fine role in the comforting and warming of humanity, that cotton got all over protective, and it has been an increasingly rapid, torrid, slide into the coddling, stifling, arms of the nanny state ever since.
Certainly medical uses for cotton were both fine and effective, cosmetic uses, while not as selfless, were at least beneficial to those using them and those gazing lovingly upon them.
No, it was when the wrapping of delicate items in cotton wool was wholeheartedly embraced by the nanny state for the safe keeping of any item they cared to name, that cotton's glowing CV gained a huge and troublesome blot upon it.
Ralph Nader was a Master Cotton Wrapper who blazed a soft fluffy trail of safety for many to follow. Truth is Ralph did many fine things that countless people alive today can say a hearty thanks for. In 1965 his master work, "Unsafe at any speed", forced the motor manufacturers to admit to a need for designed-in safety that has since become a money-spinning, life-saving passion for all marques. At the time Ralph's ground-breaking safety focus was sorely needed, and was echoed in work by Bernie, Max, and Sir Jackie on the tracks of the world. Saving lives by making people accountable for shocking compromises in the design of road cars, race cars, and in road and track design. We all owe them, and unsung others, a debt of thanks for the huge numbers of lives saved, and the remarkable safe environment in which we race and travel today. And yet... and yet some have missed the point of reasonable risk, and acceptable safety.
So dear reader, let us pick and choose some statistics over the years for a few minutes of amusement and reflection, and maybe, just maybe, it will give us a small glimpse of the societal pressures driving some of the more teeth grinding decisions of both the FIA and Liberty in recent years...
For Australia, peak mortality was reached around 1860, when it stood at 2,000 per 100,000, being 2%. At birth males could expect to live to an average age of 43, and females 46. Ouch.
By 1900, not long after Mr. Benz gifted us the motor vehicle, these figures had improved to an age of 54 for men, and 58 for women. This vast improvement mainly being down to huge improvements in the mortality rate for the under-fives.
It was a similar story around the globe.
World War One killed millions, and yet fostered medical advances, and was followed by a horrific Flu pandemic (the Spanish Flu) that is believed to have infected 500 million globally, and killed between 50 and 100 million of these poor souls. Being 5% of the world population at that time. Cotton wound dressings, and cotton clothes were in full use around the world aiding humanity in many a dark hour.
In the same time span, the motor car had reduced travel deaths, previously due to horses, by a magnificent margin, and was well on the way to eliminating manure from cities (a significant evil back then and responsible for illnesses across the developed world). The car was being championed as both a life-saver, and a freedom machine for the masses.
Cotton meanwhile continued to be used in ever-more refined clothing, and increasingly sterile field-dressings, but was yet to be sold in handy ball form.
Motor racing was still in its days of innocence with European races being held on the open road... while they were still open to the public.
Statistics continued to generally bother no one. And then in 1937 Cotton wool balls were finally gifted to the world just in time to be of great aid during World War Two. Another horror tale in the history of human development.
So we arrive at 1950 with cotton supporting many aspects of life in both the hands of the seamstress and the nurse. Cotton wool balls were turning into both cotton pads and cotton buds, much to the delight of a consumer society that was increasingly buying rather than making the items they wore or had around the house.
Those that survived World War Two were filled with both relief and a zest for living that were met in fine measure by increasing global travel, rock and roll music, and cars. Lots and lots of cars.
So this largely statistic unworried generation witnessed the birth of the Formula One World Championship untroubled by a Nannie State obsessed with speed limits, speed humps, crumple zones, and run off areas.
The Cold War was in full swing. The British submarine HMS Truculent collides with a Swedish oil tanker in the Thames Estuary killing 64 people. Rationing is still in force in Britain. Albert Einstein warns Nuclear War would result in mutually assured destruction (MAD). (Didn't Billy Joel have a big hit with this? – Ed)
The first VW microbus is produced in Wolfsburg, Germany.
And Formula One delivers its first season. Nino Farina wins the first F1 World Championship in a supercharged Alfa Romeo 158. He won the opening race of the season at Silverstone, in front of King George the VI. The next race, Monaco, was won by his team mate Juan Manuel Fangio. Between them they would win all races that season with the exception of the Indy 500 (won by Johnnie Parsons) in which the Europeans rarely raced. Juan finishing second in the championship to Nino. (Who says pole lock-outs, fast laps, and a winning clean sweep are a modern phenomenon...?).
At each round of this first championship the track was surrounded in the most part by fans who had either endured world war first hand, or at the side of emotionally exhausted parents. All of whom would view accidental death as just that; "an accident, these things happen." Being separated from racing cars by knee high bales of hay or a simple rope was safety enough for this generation.
For five years the Formula One World Championship raced in simple delight for both the drivers, and the public. A few deaths here and there, but for now no one was really counting. And race coverage was mostly the printed word in newspapers around the planet.
And then a Mercedes crashed. And the media was there to record it. A truly horrid crash that reduced even war veterans to tears.
Le Mans 1955 and poor Pierre Levegh lost control of his Mercedes 300 SLR. A car that had recently propelled Stirling Moss to a record setting Mille Miglia win.
At extreme speed, and lacking the disk brakes of the more technically advanced Jaguar D-types in the race, Levegh lost control and flew into the crowd. When the smoke cleared Levegh was dead, as were eighty-three spectators. And the media recorded it first-hand. Around 180 other spectators suffered injury. A major enquiry was launched and the track design was blamed. At the end of the season Mercedes withdrew from racing until 1989, and the world started to pay increasing attention to both 'accidental' deaths, and safety standards.
In 1955 global life expectancy at birth had risen to 48 years. While higher in developed countries that's still a low number. Cotton sales were booming as the Baby Boom that would peak in the early 1960's started to gain momentum.
1960 and Formula One saw the first generational change with Fangio, and others, hanging up their helmets in the late 1950s.
Jack Brabham racing for Cooper won his second championship, while Lotus won its first grand prix at Monaco and Harry Schell (Silverstone), Chris Bristow, and Alan Stacey (both Spa) all lost their lives racing. Cotton was about to clothe the Woodstock generation, and personal safety was becoming a concept of concern.
1960 saw the infant death rate in America fall from 29.2 per 100,000 in 1950, to 26.0. A figure reflected around the developed world.
1965 saw a gentlemen by the name of Jackie Stewart take his first F1 start at the South African GP, and his first win later that year at Monza.
1966 and at Spa Stewart had a horrid crash where he was trapped in the car for over twenty minutes. This coupled with the death of racing friends turned Stewart into a crusader for improved safety. Hard to believe now, but one of his first missions was the mandatory use of seat belts in racing cars, and then full face helmets...! Not using either today strikes one as madness, and yet Stewart had to campaign to have them introduced!
1970 and the American infant death rate is down to 20.0 per 100,000 and Stewart is racing towards being a triple World Champion. His final Championship win came in 1973 with Elf Team Terrell by which time he had seen too many pass away while at the wheel of racing cars.
1980 and now the American infant death rate is down to 12.6 per 100,000. 55% lower than in 1950! The media was now ever present in sport, it was no longer the pursuit of the monied to pursue out of public sight. Tracks were becoming safer, race cars were becoming safer, and thanks to the pioneering work of Nader, road cars were far safer and the public was becoming less accepting of the concept of "Accidental death".
1980 saw the Australian Alan Jones win the championship for Williams.
1982 saw the passing of the people's champion Gillies Villeneuve. A horrid accident in qualifying at Zolder for the Belgian grand prix. Again a moment caught by the media that horrified the public.
Then in 1987 the MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsized leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge with the tragic death of 193 passengers and crew. The subsequent investigation, after many years, led to the concept of "Corporate Manslaughter" placing responsibility for the design and production of safe products firmly on the corporate shoulders of CEOs, MDs, and boards around the world. This was a huge tipping point in the public perception of acceptable risk. No longer was; "you get that, and try to be careful" an acceptable approach to life-threatening risk.
1990 and the commercialisation of Formula One is in full swing. Ayrton Senna wins his second championship driving for McLaren-Honda. It was the age of titanic battles between Senna and Prost that could be argued as the second Golden Age of Formula One after the free-wheeling days of the 1950s and 1960s. Prost and Senna would place their lives on the line in titanic season-long battles that have already passed into modern legend.
1990 saw the American infant death rate fall to 9.2 per 100,000 (having dipped under ten for the first time in 1989). It was now less than a third the rate in 1950.
And then the sport loving world witnessed the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. Poor Roland Ratzenberger died during Saturday qualifying, and then during the race on the Sunday, Ayrton Senna dies on television at the wheel of his Williams FW16 in front of an appalled global audience.
Sport, risk, road and track safety would never be the same again.
Calls to ban motorsport abound. Bernie, Max, Sir Jackie, and many others work heroically to bound motorsport such that the risk remains acceptable.
2000 and the start of a new millennia. The American infant death rate has continued to tumble. It stands at 6.9 per 100,000. Over four times lower than 1950. Global sporting audiences are climbing towards their maximum values. Life expectancy at birth is now 74.3 for men, and 79.7 for women. Compared to the 54 (men) and 58 (women) from 1900 this is an increase over 30% for both.
Road and race cars continue to become safer, while road and track design have safety as a focus. Accidental deaths are less and less acceptable to an increasingly educated (and long living) public.
In 2000 the FIA runs the 54th Formula One World Championship. It is a season won by Ferrari for the first time in 21 years, with Michael Schumacher. It was a titanic battle between Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen piloting a reliability plagued McLaren.
2010 and those dear American infants are now facing a mortality rate of 6.1 per 100,000. Men can now expect to live to 76.2, and women to 81.1 both figures edging towards double those of 1900.
Public perception of risk has moved to the point where such slogans as "Towards Zero" are considered a reasonable statement for road safety. Many companies have safety reporting boards as a focus for workers arriving each morning for work.
2010 saw Sebastian Vettel win his first World Championship with Red Bull, and thus become the youngest World Champion in Formula One history. It was the 64th Formula One season.
Then we come to the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. Conditions were extremely wet and stormy, and Jules Bianchi had the horrid poor fortune to slide off the track into a recovery vehicle busy recovering a car that had slid off track the previous lap. Suffering terrible head injuries, he would tragically die the following July, thus becoming the first Formula One racing death since Ayrton in 1994. A period of twenty years without a single Formula One racing death.
Since 2014 the world has continued to become a safer place. Yes, wars, crimes against humanity, acts of terror, road and transport incidents continue to claim lives. But ignore the media sensation and look at the underlying data. There has never been a safer time to live, or a more certain time to have a healthy old age than right now.
Australia has more young men committing suicide than being killed on the roads. Reflect on that for a moment. That is totally tragic in and of itself, and requires mighty effort in the right areas of community support and mental health. Which is not to say that chasing lower injury and death rates on the roads is not a fine continuing goal. But we must distance ourselves from media hyperventilation and be realistic about risk and reward.
Yet we are all the product of our times, and none of us exists in a void. We are all influenced by the human environment around us. The Germans have gifted us the wonderful word Zeitgeist, which means the "...defining spirit or mood of a given time..." When it comes to personal safety the Zeitgeist of ever increasing personal safety has only grown in strength and reach since 1900.
So consider the world Formula One now faces compared to those war weary faces in the crowds of 1950.
Consider going to a race with a friend and watching them crushed to a pulp by debris from a cartwheeling racing car.
Consider Lewis, Sebastian and the other racers looking as grim as they did when they stood silently and remembered Jules. Consider them all doing that time and again as their numbers shrank just as Sir Jackie so sadly did for many years.
I've seen the initial testing footage with the Halos in place. After a few seconds it blurred into the rest of the car, and I really no longer see it.
The Halo is the latest layer of cotton wool wrapped around the drivers by those master wrappers, the FIA. Yet, the FIA, like all of us, live in our shared society. A society that demands cotton wool wrapping that is both fool proof and idiot proof. A society that while it occasionally rails against the Nanny State, is actually more dependent on it than we might like to admit.
As those first hardy fans gathered behind hay-bails in the 1950s to watch brave drivers knowingly confront potential death each and every race, the risk tolerance of them all was extreme. Today we would faint at the foolhardiness of such reckless risk taking. The Zeitgeist is for ever more protection in the name of preserving life. The FIA and Liberty might be poor at judging the Zeitgeist of their fan-base, but they are totally on-message for safety in the 21st century.
So, as the Halo is cascaded down to lower series it will at some point save a life. And at that moment all that wrapping in cotton wool, all that obsessive energy spent making life safer and safer, even if the latest measure is annoying to enact... well, all of a sudden it is all worth it.
May-be that fiend who automated the production of cotton wool balls is not such a bad chap after all. Cotton wool is good in all forms. We just need to resist the temptation to wrap every little darn thing in layers of it, until we forget what it means to be alive in the first place.
Max Noble.
Learn more about Max and check out his previous features, here