Formula One’s Wendlinger Critical

Less than two weeks after three-time world champion Ayrton Senna of Brazil and rookie Roland Ratzenberger of Austria were killed during a Formula One weekend in Imola, Italy, a third Formula One driver lay in critical condition Thursday after crashing during practice for the Monaco Grand Prix.

Karl Wendlinger, 25, of Austria, suffered head injuries when his Sauber-Mercedes hit a concrete barrier head-on at high speed shortly after exiting the famous Monte Carlo tunnel.

Doctors said he was in a “very serious coma.”

The three tragic incidents, coming only three months after the deaths of stock car drivers Neil Bonnett and Rodney Orr at Daytona International Speedway while practicing for the Daytona 500, have left the sport searching for answers.

Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi and Nigel Mansell, all former Formula One world champions in Indianapolis preparing for the Indy 500, had varying opinions on the situation.

“We should learn something from every accident,” Andretti said. “Unfortunately, two tragic accidents (Senna and Ratzenberger) occurred where it’s not a likely place to lose a car. Still, even though race officials felt it was a safe place, it would not have cost much for two rows of tires in front of the wall.

“They said Senna was killed when a wheel rebounded and hit him on the forehead. The same impact, at the same speed, against rows of tires would probably not have sent the wheel back against him.

“Another thing is the Formula One cockpit. The driver’s head and shoulders are naked. From the neck up is exposed. Some sort of heavily padded protection for the side of the head, such as we have in Indy cars, would help. It might have saved a life.”

Fittipaldi, who won the Formula One championship in 1972 and 1974 before coming to race in the United States, said the current Formula One cars are much too fragile.

“They weigh 250 pounds less than an Indy car and because they are so light, there is not much material around the driver to absorb an impact,” Fittipaldi said. “The driver is much more vulnerable than he is in an Indy car. I would recommend a canopy cockpit, similar to those used in off-shore racing boats, to make them more safe.”

Mansell was more philosophical.

“Any form of motor racing over 30 m.p.h. is dangerous,” the 1992 Formula One champion and current Indy car champion said.

“In the past 10 years in Formula One and Indy cars, there have been a lot of horrific accidents in which drivers walked away. I call it luck.

“Take the accident in Phoenix. It was just plain luck we didn’t have at least one, maybe two, fatalities.”

At Phoenix last month, Hiro Matsushita was sitting in the middle of the track after a relatively minor accident when he was hit broadside by Jacques Villeneuve’s car, splitting Matsushita’s car in half.

“If Villeneuve had hit one foot to the left, he would have hit Hiro and surely killed him. One foot to the right and he would hit the engine, and possibly killed himself. Where he hit was straight between the engine and the monocoque, which was split. I’m telling you that was luck. The Gods were shining on all of us up there.”

It had been 12 years since a fatality occurred in Formula One before the double deaths at Imola. Veteran Formula One driver Gerhard Berger, a close friend of Senna’s, seemed to echo Mansell’s feelings when he told the Associated Press:

“It seems there is a period of luck together and a period of unluck together, and it seems the luck period is finished.”

Max Mosley, president of the International Automobile Federation, said the Monte Carlo race on Sunday could be canceled depending on Wendlinger’s condition.