Australian GP - An Exercise in boredom?

Surely there must be limit to how much safety F1 should pursue? If not, we may as well install cameras in the cars, and drivers could pilot the cars from the pits with an RC unit. Or perhaps the whole thing could be staged in virtual reality, where not only is the safety absolute, but the outcome could be decided by the computer that can factor in all known variables. Every Sunday we could be sent an email showing the result, and we needn't waste our precious driving Sundays watching races!

But seriously though, one should acknowledge that driving a 700kg car at 200mph is never going to be safe; kinetic energy sees to that. Whilst I wouldn't endorse going back to the 60's and 70's where injury was commonplace, perhaps we have to look at what F1s concessions to safety are. It seems that "safety" equates to not going so fast; a simple premise one would assume, but their measurement of "speed" is lap time. The fastest lap at Monza during the Italian GP over the last 40 years had dropped from 1.38 to 1.21 ('63-'03).

But with the modern GP circuit bristling with chicanes, the cars are still going much faster in the fast bits and much slower in the slow bits, and surely changing from very fast to very slow is where most accidents occur. This is exacerbated by the reduction in mechanical grip (groves in tyres) and increases in aerodynamic grip (ie you get most aerodynamic grip on the fast bits (where you need it least), and as you slow down, the downforce lessens, and your grip starts to disappear just where you need it the most). So whilst cars have been made much safer, their connection with the road surface has become more tenuous, and this is apparently much safer, ie. drivers dare not dice with their "margin for error" as it is so much smaller than it used to be.

It just seems to me that improving mechanical grip and reducing aerodynamic downforce are the best way to improve the "racing". And perhaps drivers acknowledging that hurtling through Eau Rouge without lifting off at the top is always gonna be way more dangerous than being an accountant....