A Reflection about Felipe...

Formula One is dangerous. This much everybody can understand, even the average bloke down the pub who reckons that Messrs Button, Hamilton and Co. have it easy "Just driving a car in circles"!
Henry Surtees, an 18 year old racing driver from a talented racing family (he was the son of Formula One World Champion John Surtees) was killed from a blow to the head on July 19th at Brands Hatch in a Formula Two Race. Deaths are still not "uncommon" in Motor Racing nowadays, but they certainly don't occur at every event.
You can imagine the sports' shock then, when a mere six days after Surtees was killed, Felipe Massa, Formula One driver for Ferrari, was hit on the head by a spring off another competitors' car whilst he was travelling at approximately 160mph in the Second Qualifying Session for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
In all my years of watching Formula One (since way back in the early nineties), there are only a few accidents that I have seen that have made me flinch. Jenson Button's Free Practice smash in Monte Carlo, 2003, and Robert Kubica's barrel-rolling in Canada, 2007 are the two most recent that I can think of at the time of writing. Felipe Massa going straight on into a tyre barrier with little or no attempt to brake didn’t make me flinch. It scared me.
To hear that evening that the young Brazilian was in intensive care following surgery to a fractured skull and injuries to his left eye made the sport take note that, even five years ago, a simple accident like this could have ended the young Brazilian’s life, never mind his career. Safety in an inherently dangerous environment such as this has been paramount and strived for since Sir Jackie Stewart started pushing for increased safety across the sport in the late 1960s/early 1970s. It has come on leaps and bounds which is something everybody even remotely involved in the sport can appreciate.
The fact that Felipe has survived is enough for us all.
The news that he is planning a return to racing for its home GP in Brazil on October 18th is amazing and extremely encouraging too. He is currently at home near Sau Paulo resting and recuperating. I hope he can fully recover. He is a promising talent and it would be more than a shame if cannot make a full recovery. It would mean the loss of one of the greatest young talents from the sport, the great Michael Schumacher’s protégé. The loss of somebody who will win world titles in spectacular fashion…and this is something the world does not deserve to be denied from watching.
Get well soon Felipe. The chequered flag awaits…