THE SCIENCE OF SAFETY

By David Tremayne.
Published by Haynes.

All too often when I'm talking to a gumby (i.e. non-motorsport fan) about the stuff I write for Atlas F1, I have to deal with a comment or question to the effect of "How on earth do you distinguish a good book about F1 from a bad one? Aren't they all just about cars driving in fast circles?" My normal reaction is to pour my drink over the person in question (immature, but immensely satisfying in the short-term). From now on, I might save myself the dry-cleaning bills and show them the introduction to this book instead. The opening three or four pages in 'The Science of Safety' feature some of the best recent motorsport writing that I have read, and is easily the best summary of the nature of motor racing's endless struggle to find a way of making racing both exciting and safe.

'The Science of Safety' is a sister volume to 'The Science of Speed' by the same author, and those who have read the latter should have a fairly good idea of what to expect. Essentially, Tremayne traces the history of the efforts that have been directed toward trying to make motorsport safer for both the participants and those who watch from close quarters. While he does explore the different safety measures that have been implemented over time, the book is as much an examination of the changes in the approach to the basic concept of making racing less dangerous. (It might be more correct to say 'an examination of the emergence of a basic approach to making racing safer', considering that preventative action rarely went further than a gesture during the sport's formative years).

Tremayne's accessible writing style, coupled with the comprehensive account of the changes in approaches to minimizing the risks inherent in racing, are the two strongest aspects of 'The Science of Safety'. A great deal of work appears to have gone into the book, particularly where interviews are concerned. The author spoke to an array of people in the course of collecting material for this book – something which, as obvious as it might seen, is becoming increasingly uncommon in the swamp of Formula One titles that are unleashed each year.

Different arguments are lined up alongside one another to help the reader develop some idea of the multi-dimensional nature of many safety issues, with Tremayne choosing to sometimes let the protagonist's words stand alone, and other times weighing with his own thoughts. It's a nice mix, and contributes greatly toward making the book seem more like a discussion and less like a lecture. It helps, too, that Tremayne's interviewees – Jackie Stewart, Max Mosley, Sid Watkins, Louis Stanley and the like – are the types of characters that almost invariably have something interesting to say.

That said, the book does have its flaws. 'The Science of Speed' was let down a little by its layout and presentation, particularly where the proliferation of outdated, black-and-white photos were concerned. This is still a problem in 'The Science of Safety', though not quite to the same degree. The shots are up-to-date, and in colour where possible, but the actual reproduction often leaves something to be desired. Granted, the paper stock that has been used might not readily lend itself to glossy, high-resolution images, but I'd certainly have expected better than the grainy, high-contrast, early-1970s-cookbook sort of colour that plagues several of the photos. (As an aside, it also appears that one photo is incorrectly captioned – the page 25 shot of a Benetton driver in training is labeled as Alexander Wurz, but it looks to me like Giancarlo Fischella).

There's also some scope for the fundamental structure of the text to be tightened up. There's too much cross-referencing (i.e. 'see Chapter Five'), which can become disorientating. This sort of stuff could easily have been overcome fairly simply had a little more thought gone into the way the book was organised. Some accounts of major racing accidents suffer similar organisational problems – we're taken through the particulars of certain accidents on more than one occasion, which becomes a little repetitive after a while. I feel I should make it clear, though, that I'm only pointing out these shortcomings because it's my job to – the good things about this book far outweigh the bad.

Before the modern era of safety (which I guess began at Imola in 1994), drivers often had what outsiders might consider to be an amazingly pragmatic approach to the risks that they were taking. It's not surprising, then, that I had no difficulty finding passages in the book that would make for a suitable excerpt. The piece that I finally settled on concerns the mid-1960s debates that surrounded a piece of equipment whose presence is taken as much for granted today as, say, wings. The item in question? Seatbelts.

"There were as many cases for as against belts at this time, when spaceframe and monocoque chassis alike could still crumple around drivers and trap them in a serious accident. After his adventure at Monza in 1964, Bob Bondurant said, 'After I'd been thrown into a pile of leaves I picked myself up and wandered around for a bit. I couldn't find the car, though. I thought, "Well, I know I came down here in a car – where the hell is it?" Then, in the middle of the Curva Grande, I found the hole in the hedge – and then I found the car. At that time the bodywork was all one piece, and the front had come back, so the windscreen and the rollover bar were sheared off. If I'd been strapped in, I'd have been decapitated.' Equally, Chris Amon probably would not have survived his unusual accident there in the 1968 Italian GP but for his seat belts. 'The car landed in the trees and I was upside down,' he remembers. 'They had to cut through the belts to get me out, but if I hadn't been wearing them I'd either have been thrown into the trees or would have had a long drop to the ground, which might not have done me any good...'" (p. 75).

If you've made it this far through the review, I think you'll like the book. It's an engaging work that is accessible and yet substantial enough to give you at least few days worth of happy reading. Despite the enormous (and seemingly obvious) importance of safety issues in Grand Prix racing, there have been relatively few titles written about the subject, and fewer still that have covered it as well as this. 'The Science of Safety' is well worth a look.