Sir Jackie Stewart believes current drivers are taking too many "liberties" out on the track, encouraged by a complacent feeling of safety.
Last weekend's pile-up at the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix resulted in little more than damaged equipment and dented egos.
But the controversial run-in at Silverstone between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, in which the Red Bull driver was pitched into a high-speed 51G crash with the barriers, left Stewart worried and disturbed.
"Lewis’ incident with Verstappen was very disturbing for me," the F1 legend told talkSPORT Breakfast.
"Frankly, if that had been in my day and well after my day, Verstappen would’ve been killed.
"The race track has been made so safe, the run-off areas so big, and the structures that he [Verstappen] finally came to a stop on and even then the g-forces were enormous.
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"I think that was a great example of what Silverstone have done to make the track safer.
"However, people are taking more liberties today than they were before because the penalties are not so large… Now it’s so safe that I think people are taking too many chances.
"The early laps at Silverstone was a good example of that because I think both drivers were overdriving, particularly when you think about it being only the beginning of the race.
"We’ve got to readdress that and sadly it sometimes takes a big, big action or even a life to make that come to real understanding."
Assessing last weekend's eventful round of racing at the Hungaroring, Stewart reckoned that Hamilton had been "lucky" to snatch a P2 result in the chaotic circumstances.
"It was a very unusual race, it was hardly representative of what would have been the case under normal circumstances," said the three-time F1 world champion.
"It was great to see the way Renault (Alpine) got the victory which they’ve been looking forward to for far too long.
"I think Lewis was a very lucky boy to finish second under the circumstances but Mercedes do a good job and he drives it extremely well.
"The Aston Martin team must be really hurting from it from coming second and on the podium to being disqualified."
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