Safety: how racing learned, often too late.

Early lessons on public roads

The first races ran on open roads with spectators at the roadside. On Long Island, after a spectator was killed by a car during the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup, William K. Vanderbilt Jr. pursued a private road with no spectators on the course, and the Long Island Motor Parkway opened in 1908. The 1910 race, in which two riding mechanics were killed, effectively ended road racing there (Vanderbilt Cup Races). Purpose-built circuits such as Brooklands and Indianapolis are described on our early racing page.

Le Mans, 11 June 1955

During the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans, Mike Hawthorn's Jaguar passed Lance Macklin's Austin-Healey and then braked to enter the pits. Macklin swerved, and Pierre Levegh's Mercedes 300 SLR struck the back of the Austin-Healey and was thrown into the spectator area (Hagerty; History.com). The sources do not agree on the number of people who died:

History.com reports that the race was not stopped, reportedly so that departing spectators would not block ambulances, that Mercedes withdrew its remaining cars, and that Hawthorn won. Hagerty notes that the pits of 1955 were exposed, with the road narrowing past them and no deceleration lanes, and that a separate pit lane came more than a decade later.

What followed

• The German and Swiss Grands Prix were cancelled later that year, and Spain and Mexico temporarily banned racing (History.com).
• Switzerland banned circuit racing. GrandPrix.com reports that an exemption for electric racing in 2015 allowed Formula E races in Zurich (2018) and Bern (2019), and that in May 2026 the Swiss government confirmed by ordinance that circuit racing is legal again from 1 July 2026, with cantons issuing permits.
• In the US, the AAA announced on 3 August 1955 that it would dissolve its Contest Board, citing Le Mans and the death of Indy 500 driver Bill Vukovich, and USAC was formed on 16 September 1955 (IMS encyclopedia).
• Hagerty reports that US carmakers withdrew public support for racing under a formal ban that lasted until 1962.

The end of open-road racing in Europe

At the 1957 Mille Miglia, Alfonso de Portago's Ferrari suffered a tyre failure near Guidizzolo. He, his co-driver and nine spectators were killed, and Bonhams records that the outcry ended long-distance open-road racing in mainland Europe. In Mexico, the Times Colonist reports that 26 people, most of them spectators, died over the five Carrera Panamericana races, and the event ended after 1954.

Jackie Stewart's campaign, from 1966

At a rain-hit Belgian Grand Prix at Spa in 1966, Jackie Stewart was trapped in his overturned BRM with fuel leaking and no marshals nearby, and the ambulance taking him to hospital got lost; he broke a collarbone (Formula 1). The Drive says Graham Hill and Bob Bondurant got him out. Stewart went on to press for full-face helmets, seat belts, barriers, larger run-off areas and a travelling Grand Prix medical unit. The Drive reports that he led boycotts of Spa and the Nürburgring when organisers would not make changes, and took heavy criticism from inside the sport for it. He won three world titles (1969, 1971 and 1973) and retired at the end of 1973, after his teammate François Cevert was killed at what was to have been Stewart's last race. He was knighted in 2001.

NASCAR in the 1960s

The Associated Press reports that after the deaths of Joe Weatherly, Glenn Roberts Jr., Jimmy Pardue and Billy Wade in 1964 and 1965, NASCAR introduced six-point harnesses, tyre inner liners and fire-retardant uniforms.

Imola, 1994

Roland Ratzenberger died in qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix on 30 April 1994, when the front wing of his Simtec failed at over 300 km/h. Zwischengas notes that he was the first driver to die at a Grand Prix meeting since Riccardo Paletti in Canada in 1982. The next day, 1 May, Ayrton Senna died in the race.

Reuters, in the Gulf Times, reports that FIA president Max Mosley set up an expert group including Professor Sid Watkins to study safety on a scientific basis, and that crash tests were tightened, speeds reduced, helmet rules toughened, and barriers, circuits and cars changed. The FIA's own list of its measures after 1994 includes a circuit alteration programme, analysis that identified 27 high-risk corners, test procedures for tyre barriers, pit-lane speed limits of 80 km/h in practice and 120 km/h in races, and stricter helmet standards. Later steps it lists include higher cockpit sides and cockpit-rim load tests (1996), front roll-hoop tests (1998) and, in 2015, Zylon anti-intrusion panels extended up to the cockpit rim.

Jules Bianchi was injured when his Marussia struck a recovery crane at the Japanese Grand Prix on 5 October 2014. He died on 18 July 2015, the first Formula One driver to die from race injuries since Senna (Salon).

The HANS device and Dale Earnhardt

The HANS (head and neck support) was designed by engineer Dr Robert Hubbard in the early 1980s, and he began selling it in 1990 with his brother-in-law, racer Jim Downing (SCCA). The FIA says it was designed to prevent head and neck injuries such as basilar skull fractures in frontal impacts; Hubbard died in February 2019.

Dale Earnhardt died on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. The AP describes him as the fourth driver in NASCAR's national series killed in nine months, after Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin Jr. and Tony Roper; the SCCA instead says he was the fourth NASCAR driver killed by a basilar skull fracture within 14 months. In October 2001, before the Talladega race, NASCAR required a HANS or Hutchens head-and-neck device in its Winston Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck series (Washington Times). The FIA reports that HANS sales went from 250 in the device's first ten years to more than 3,000 by the end of 2001. As of August 2023, the AP reported no driver deaths in NASCAR's three national series since Earnhardt's.

These dates are history, not current rules. For what is required now, check the rulebook of the event you enter and the label on your device, and see our head and neck restraints page.

The halo, 2018

The FIA introduced the halo in 2018, and it is now mandatory in all FIA single-seater championships. Its development was speeded up after Bianchi's accident, and it was controversial when introduced, including among drivers (Stewarts). On the first lap of the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix, on 29 November, Romain Grosjean's Haas went through a steel barrier, split in two and caught fire; he escaped with relatively minor burns. The FIA's investigation, reported by The Race, found he hit the barrier at about 119 mph with a peak of 67g and was out of the car about 28 seconds after it stopped.

The work continues. Formula 1 says its 2026 rules raise the roll-hoop test load from 16g to 20g and add a two-stage nose impact structure. For the gear drivers wear today, see helmets, suits and underwear and seats and harnesses, and always follow the current rules of the event you enter.