Former F1 driver Anthony Davidson has hit out at the forgiving nature of modern racing circuits, saying they encourage dangerous driving.
Davidson (pictured with Toyota WEC team mate Stephane Sarrazin) told The Guardian “a driver should be challenged and should be punished for mistakes” on racing tracks.
“We don’t want to see fans get injured or drivers get injured or killed but the drivers should get punished,” Davidson explained. “On some modern circuits it’s pathetic when you see drivers going off the track and nothing happens.”
Davidson says that although changes to tracks have been made in the interest of improving safety it has had the undesirable side-effect of encouraging more risky driving.
“The problem is, the safer the circuit becomes the more ruthless the driving becomes,” he said. “So today there is such little respect for each others’ safety on the track.”
“They feel like they can bang wheels in a straight line, but ‘the car is mega-safe – it will take it’ is the belief and therefore you get this crazy, almost borderline reckless driving coming into play.”
Davidson survived a major crash during the Le Mans 24 Hours last year when his Toyota flew into the air. He shared second place with Sarazin and Sebastien Buemi in this year’s race following a crash which claimed the life of Allan Simonsen.
