The Lessons of Felipe Massa's F1 Horror Smash: Punish Someone Else!

Felipe Massa’s terrible injuries couldn’t have come at a worse time. Not that there is necessarily a good time to get hit in the head by a piece of debris from another car, but with emotions still raw from the tragic death of Formula Two’s Henry Surtees, the conditions are perfect for a dramatic overreaction.

There is always something to learn from an accident. The death of Ayrton Senna launched a swathe of improvements to car safety that has seen Formula One remain fatality-free for 15 years. Driver safety and impact survivability is now as prominent in the design and construction of an F1 car as downforce or power output.

Despite that, accidents can and do still happen and some of the safety features work brilliantly while others do not. The wheel tethers that are designed to stop wheel assemblies being separated from the car in an accident often fail and won’t work at all should the wheel nut fall off.

The high cockpit walls and HANS devices, on the other hand, work very well and may well have been the reason that Massa survived the impact with the wall after being hit by the spring.

The fresh air system designed after the death of Elio de Angelis prevented Gerhard Berger from inhaling smoke and hot air after his fiery crash at Imola—coincidentally the same corner that claimed Senna—potentially saving the Austrian’s life.

The BBC quotes Bernie Ecclestone as having said that "This is not nice, I thought we had seen an end to all this sort of thing. It's mad. This is just a few days after one death and it is very disturbing."

Ecclestone has charged F1 medical supremo Professor Sid Watkins with the task of review safety procedures.

It is difficult to see what else could be done. Formula One cars and drivers operate at the very limit of performance and every now and then things go wrong.

It is likely that the only thing that could have prevented Massa being hit would be a fully enclosed cockpit and then they would no longer be F1 cars. Similarly, there is little doubt that Ross Brawn did not design his cars to have pieces of suspension fall off, so changing design rules won’t change things.

Sometimes, as they say, s*@t happens and as terrible as the accident was, it is almost impossible to see how it could have been avoided. Still, the right thing to do is to investigate it properly and take any lessons that are there to be learned.

The FIA, however, is not immune to overreaction and though it would serve no purpose to do so here, we all know that won't stop the FIA.

And so it came to pass, to get all biblical, that when the opportunity arose to take a swipe at someone for a transgression, the overreaction came. The FIA has taken the stick to Renault because a wheel came off its car.

The penalty—exclusion of the entire team from the next race. Points, grid placings, or fines seem a much more appropriate response

How many times has this happened in the past? Too many to count, but this is the first time that I can recall of a team being excluded from a race for this kind of thing. There is no doubt that Renault is taking the brunt of the FIA's anger at the Massa incident.

Has Brawn even received a stern telling off because a suspension component fell off? I don't think so.

There's an FIA investigation underway to determine what happened, so something may happen, just don't hold your breath.

In the meantime, however, we can only wish Felipe a speedy recovery. He is a driver of immense talent and his presence will be missed on the grid. Let’s hope he’s not away from it for too long or that Schumi gets too comfortable in his seat while he's gone.