Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRed Bull Racing

No driver safety concerns after Alonso crash

Daniel Ricciardo says F1 drivers have no safety concerns heading in to the new season following Fernando Alonso’s accident during testing.

Alonso was hospitalised for three days after crashing during the second pre-season test, suffering concussion after hitting the wall side-on. With the accident a relatively low-speed one, the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association has requested more information from the FIA and McLaren to understand if safety can be approved as a result.

With Alonso missing the Australian Grand Prix due to the incident, Ricciardo was asked if he has any safety concerns following the crash, to which he replied: “No concerns.

“Safety is always talked about in the sport and obviously with Fernando the most recent incident it’s obviously not nice to see and not nice to see he will miss a race because of it. But we’ve got a Grand Prix Drivers’ Association which is always talking about safety and trying to improve it. So it has come a long way.

“It can obviously still come further and we’re trying to find ways of making it safer. The sport is always going to have an element of risk, the speeds we go that’s what it is but we feel we can still make it safer and keep that excitement about it as well.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.