The Risks of Racing - Statistics

[pob]

There have been >150 US F1 drivers over the years? Wow, that's an interesting stat!

Yes 155, but 101 of those US drivers only competed in the Indy 500 which was a world championship race from 1950 to 1960.

[Just_a_fan]

Ah, that makes more sense.

[Cam]

yeah, the next couple of graphs will help clarify some of the overall stats. Looking back at all the facts and figures is intriguing. It's actually a big job, think I've opened Pandora's box!

Edit: from OP "errors and omissions accepted". I'd prefer scrutiny and assistance of the work, not my very poor typing. Maybe PM me so new posts on typos don't waste people clicking to read them.

[Just_a_fan]

(unhelpful stuff removed)

[marcush.]

unfortunatelly the stats do not mirror the real risk .
Not long ago a severe off in Eau rouge was a sure entry in heavon(or hell) these days it is still a risk but considerable lower.
Now you can say people back then ...as they wanted to survive put logically a bigger safety margin in their driving -staying away from what was sure death in any event of something going wrong ...but todays or even 10 years ago -Villeneuve floored it knowing the car would not allow him to go through at that speed..
So inherently the risks today are completely different compared to say 25 years ago-now the drivers deliberately explore those outer rims of sanity when only some outlandish guys like Gilles Villeneuve would do that in the ol days.
Considering this the risks todays are considerably lower for the same level of being adventurous .The fact that we still see fatalities is more a factor of risks that have not been fully covered yet -like debris hitting a driver -which is a long way better than it was -due to cockpit protection and wheel tethers and now special visor reinforcements till Massas incident

[Cam]

I think the early stats do show some facts. After Stewart got involved and the protests happened, we saw an immediate huge drop in fatalities. As to exactly why - that is, was it track conditions, car upgrades, regulations etc - that is still to identify. Hopefully, kind knowledgable forum members might be able to mention specific years safety items were introduced - such as carbon fibre tubs, or fire extinguishers in the car, etc. I'll map these along the time line as well. So please, post any relevant info you all know of.

As with any evolution, people just get better and this is probably reflected as well. Drivers now spend years coming up throughout the ranks in different classes starting in karts. It might be worthwhile to see just how much prior experience the early drivers actually had before driving F1 and this may factor as well (i.e total years experience).

Overall though, the stats do certainly show F1 is quite safe considering. Next couple of graphs will show correlation to tracks and hopefully (if not too hard to find out) distance travelled.