Abstract
A system approach to safety in F1 racing environment requires high level of compatibility operational capability between driver, car and track.
Significant effort has been and is aimed at facilitating primary safety to avoid crashes. However the racing environment by its nature demands the application of each of the three elements at the limit of their capability and design. Under such circumstances a slight deviation from the design limit by any of the three element result in system failure and hence crash event. To protect the driver it is therefore necessary to pro-act the crash and facilitate the required protective system within which drivers tolerance loads are not exceeded.
An assessment of several majority case accidents in 1984 identified certain scenarios involving preventable injuries. Based on that information the first set of crash parameters were defined and corresponding impact test for minimum crashworthy related standards were formatted.
This paper describes the circumstances upon which the initial standards were based and their progress to the present level. As well as defining residual space the means of energy management to minimise energy transfer to the residual space is described. Drivers tolerance loads as well as means of their assessment will be presented. To ensure adequate protection i.e. preventing the induced loads on the driver from exceeding his tolerance loads, various restraint method of the body segments have been put forward which will be described in this paper.