No 'knee-jerk responses' on safety, says former F1 doctor
Gary Hartstein, a former F1 doctor, says the sport will never stop looking for ways to improve safety following Jules Bianchi's death.
Formula One will not make any "knee-jerk responses" following the death of Jules Bianchi because the sport is constantly looking for ways to improve safety, says former F1 doctor Gary Hartstein.
Bianchi suffered a diffuse axonal injury last October after colliding with a recovery vehicle at the Japanese Grand Prix and it was announced on Friday that the 25-year-old Frenchman had passed away.
In the aftermath of the crash, F1 announced the concept of the virtual safety car whereby drivers have to stay above a minimum time if it is deemed competitors or officials are in danger.
The Grand Prix Drivers' Association (DPDA) released a statement following the news of Bianchi's passing that said they will never relent in their search for ways to improve safety.
Hartstein - who fulfilled a number of medical roles during 15 years in F1 - is confident that all is being done to limit major accidents.
"We're three-quarters of a season beyond the accident, so we're way beyond any worry of overreaction. [FIA race director] Charlie Whiting skillfully negotiated that," Hartstein told Omnisport.
"At this point I doubt all of a sudden the GPDA will be screaming 'we need to do something now'. That would be a little bit hypocritical to be honest, I don't think anybody is going to do that.
"There won't be knee-jerk responses, this was a racing accident, multi-factorial.
"By and large the system worked correctly, but I think Charlie is very skillful at avoiding doing things abruptly.
"In 1994 [following the death of Ayrton Senna] they had all them crazy chicanes show up everywhere because they were scared of a bad accident again on TV until something was done engineering wise, but circuits went back to how they were with better run-offs.
"I'm not worried about knee-jerk reactions because there won't be any, they just don't work like that."
Asked if more needed to be done to improve safety, Hartstein added: "I think from the engineering point of view, and it's been a couple of years since I had direct contact with the sport, I know the problems that are worrisome get looked at regularly and there's regular progress.
"The guys out there in the trenches are constantly keeping themselves up to date with the newest things to do and the best way to do things. You get some great saves out there.
"The guys out there, it's not like nothing happens, nothing happens then something happens. It's a constant process. There's probably no one thing that I would wish for based on Jules' accident. This is the first death we've had F1 racing-related since 1994."