Event's at Spa two weeks ago were, not to put too fine a point on it, eventful. Though Michael Schumacher trounced all comers by winning the 52nd race of his career, upper most in everyone's minds was the accident befalling Luciano Burti on lap 4. It was the Brazilian's fourth major excursion of the season, and his most spectacular to date. His impact with the tyre wall was one of tremendous violence and that Burti was able to survive it, merely underlined the immense steps in safety Formula One has undertaken since that awful weekend, seven years ago at Imola. Classed as one of the few remaining 'drivers circuits', Spa Francorchamps has traditionally become somewhat of a proving ground for developments in grand prix safety...
Since the inception of increased driver protection via higher cockpit sides - mandatory from '96, many a life has been saved on the daunting Belgian race track, as proved by the more serious accidents endured by Mika Salo, Jacques Villeneuve and Ricardo Zonta to name but a few. Of all the circuits on the Formula One calendar, Eau Rouge stands alone as the corner drivers respect more than any other. Predominantly taken at around 180mph, the fast sweeping complex is regarded as a place to separate the men from the boys and though many have tried to take it flat out, few have succeeded. Others, have simply been 'caught out' by the shear nature of the corner itself, usually resulting in a ferocious visit to the barrier.
In 1998, Saturday's warm-up session was well underway when the red flags suddenly appeared. Television screens depicted a shaken Mika Salo stepping from his mangled Arrows at the top of Eau Rouge. The Finn, apparently getting his line all wrong, clouted the outside barrier with immense force, ripping off the entire left-hand side of the chassis and thus destroying the monocoque in the process. It was an impact of extreme violence and having visited the medical centre for a routine check up, Salo was amazingly declared fit to take part in the qualifying hour. Describing the incident, the lucky driver had this to say: "It all happened so quickly. The car had been so nice through the corner all weekend, and I had been nearly flat from the start. But that time I turned in and it went 360 degrees immediately and then hit the wall. I remember everything until I saw the tyre wall coming towards me..."
