How Many Grand Prix Drivers Have Died

From the first days of motor racing, drivers have lived close to the edge. Thanks to marked improvements in safety standards, the number seriously injured and killed competing in the sport has significantly reduced. The last death of a driver in an F1 car was Ayrton Senna in 1994, but in the early years the toll was alarming. Here is a list of all those who have died racing in Formula One, not including officials and spectators. Between 1950 and 1961 the Indianapolis 500 was considered part of the Formula One championship, even though few European drivers made the trip over to America to compete.

Lewis-Evans' Vanwall engine seized and sent him crashing into barriers at high speed, his car bursting into flames. He was airlifted back to England on team boss Tony Vandervell's private plane but died in hospital of burns six days later. Despite winning the inaugural constructors' championship, Vandervell was so distraught he withdrew from racing, as, for a time, did Lewis-Evans' manager Bernie Ecclestone. Since the first NASCAR race on the sandy beaches of Florida in 1948, there have been a total of 28 deaths on the track. The first occurred in 1952 at Langhorne Speedway in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, when Larry Mann's car crashed through a fence and flipped. Mann was rushed to a nearby hospital but died later that evening from his injuries, which included a pulmonary hemorrhage and massive head wounds.

Unfortunately, Mann was the first of three drivers to be killed at Langhorne within five years. The hugely talented Cevert's car clipped a kerb during Saturday practice at Watkins Glen and was knocked into the safety barriers, causing it to spin headlong into loose barriers on the other side of the track. His team-mate, mentor and friend Jackie Stewart, who had already won the world title, quit there and then ahead of what would have been his final race. Mass never raced in F1 again, ending a grand prix career that saw him score one win and eight podiums in 104 races between 1973 and 1982. His best season was 1977, when he finished sixth overall in the world championship, driving for McLaren. After leaving F1, Mass went on to have a successful career in sports car racing, winning the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1989.

Although the drivers are highly skilled and have lots of practice, it is still amazing that there are not more fatal accidents in each of the three motorsports of F1, IndyCar and NASCAR. It can seem like there is a crash in each of these events in every single race, and so it is really an achievement for the industry that there are rarely any fatalities. The only man to win the drivers' championship posthumously, Rindt died during final practice at Monza when his car crashed into perimeter fencing and disintegrated. He had only just started wearing a seat belt and it is believed that as he slid down inside the cockpit it cut his throat.

The crash was in exactly the same place that von Trips had died nine years earlier. Several fatal accidents from outside F1 occured in ways very similar to these crashes in F1, even despite strenghtening safety measures all over the motorsport world. And the potential for further improvements to the safety of F1 cars is getting slimmer and slimmer, without having to resort to very radical and even more risky measures . Circuit safety, on the other hand, has done miracles over the last years. But as Peterson lay on the tarmac, track officials hampered attempts to get an ambulance to him and it was a quarter of an hour before medical aid arrived.

There was more concern for Vittorio Brambilla, who had head injuries, and he was the first to be treated, and fortunately he made a full recovery. At the hospital surgeons, with Peterson's agreement, operated that night to stabilise ten fractures in his legs. However, during the night bone marrow went into his bloodstream through the fractures leading to him suffering full renal failure. Donohue lost control of his March during a practice session and careered into fencing. A marshal was killed by flying debris but it was thought Donohue was alright.

However, he suffered from a worsening headache and the next day went to hospital where he lapsed into a coma and died from a brain haemorrhage. It was believed his head had struck a wooden fence post during the crash. Looking at the basic mechanics of a Formula One race, it may not initially seem like a dangerous sport. The drivers, who are professionals behind the wheel, are decked out in safety gear and regulated helmets and are well-versed on the inner workings of their vehicle and the subtle nuances of the circuits.

The reality of it, however, is that F1 racing is quite a dangerous sport, especially considering that some circuits allow drivers to reach top speeds of around 300 mph. One wrong move, one miscalculated turn, one unavoidable accident – they're all it can take to abruptly end one's racing career. Between 1970 and 1982, 15 drivers lost their lives in F1 races. After the accident, most NASCAR teams migrated from traditional five to six-point safety harnesses. NASCAR mandated the use of head-and-neck restraint devices later in 2001. NASCAR also began requiring the use of SAFER barriers at the top touring series race tracks across the country.

The soft foam walls move slightly upon impact, dissipate energy, and reduce the force exerted on the driver. The impact was so great that the extinguisher was thrown into the air and over a nearby grandstand. Adding to the eerie nature of the tragedy, his car continued to move along at speed before crashing into the barriers and back onto the track where it was hit by another car. The driver of that car escaped unhurt but he was distraught to discover that the man behind the wheel of the vehicle he had crashed into was already dead.

This will go down in history as the most talked about F1 fatality in its history. The legendary Brazilian died when his car crashed into a concrete wall, causing head injuries. His death was the second that weekend, after Roland Ratzenberg had a fatal crash in qualify.

These two deaths prompted calls for major safety overhaul, which led to no death recorded for two decades, before Bianchi's crash. NASCAR has had plenty of safety implantations in recent years, and a lot of them owe their existence in the sport to the death of Dale Earnhardt. In 2001, he died at the Daytona 500 when he hit a wall in a last lap crash. This prompted several safety measures to become mandatory in the sport, including head and neck safety restraints and softer crash barriers. It might seem an intrinsic part of F1 today, but Jackie Stewart was one of the first drivers to prove that racers can, and should, strive for better safety standards. As a triple champion and dominant force in the sport, Stewart had the credibility needed to change the culture around safety in motorsport.

One race later and Ferrari suffered a second blow when Collins, who was lying third in the drivers' championship, lost control while battling for the lead and his car careered into fencing. Collins was thrown out of the cockpit and hit a lone tree, dying later that day from a fractured skull. Although the deaths of these racing legends were tragic events, they helped the sport to develop many of the modern safety devices and regulations that are used in the sport today. As a result of this, Formula One celebrated the 20th fatality-free season in 2014, up until Bianchi's accident in Japan. The 2000's remains the only decade to date in which no driver was killed.

The first driver killed, during the 1950 Haute-Garonne GP, was French racer Raymond Sommer. The last fatally injured driver of our century was Jules Bianchi from Nice. During the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, the French pilot lost control of his car, veered off the Suzuka circuit and collided with the rear of a tractor crane. His father has recently taken legal action against the FIA, the Marussia team and Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One Group. Two weeks later he was back in the March for the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. A pall still hung over the track, located in the dunes near the North Sea coast, following the death of British driver Piers Courage three years earlier.

Driving a Williams-Ford, Courage suffered a suspension failure and, after a heavy impact, his car burst into flames. He is believed to have died instantly, having been struck in the head by a loose wheel, rather than as a result of the inferno. The 1965 Italian Grand Prix at Monza is thought to have seen the most overtakes for the lead of any F1 championship race in history, with first place changing hands a whopping 41 times over the 76-lap event. Schumacher, left, and Damon Hill, right, went into the final race of the season separated by just one point in the championship. On lap 35 of the 81-lap race, Schumacher brushed a barrier that may have caused some damage to the car's aerodynamics. The brush give an opening to Hill, who came up on Schumacher on the next turn.

Schumacher, in what race stewards ruled was a racing move, then made contact with Hill. The contact knocked both cars out of the race and out of the points. NASCAR drivers are notorious for driving much closer to each other than F1 and IndyCar drivers. This is partly because they can afford to bump off each other more than the fragile open wheel cars, but this also makes them very prone to accidents from small – but high speed – collisions.

There are also more cars on the track, which makes the likelihood of others being involved in crashes much higher. As an overview, lets take a look at the fatalities in each motorsport to get a gauge of how dangerous each sport can be at its worst. Starting with F1, the most recent fatality came in 2015, with the crash occurring in 2014. Jules Bianchi suffered serious head injuries that put him into a coma for several months following a crash at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Statistically, there have been the most deaths out of the three in IndyCar, with 95 since 1916. In terms of crashes, regardless of whether or not the driver is injured or killed, NASCAR usually has the most per season, but it is hard to say which motorsport is truly the most dangerous. The car swerved into the infield, before shooting straight back across the track into the outer wall. Cortner's head hit the steering wheel and he died later that day of "massive head injuries". Another American, Jerry Unser, had died just two days earlier on the same track. As two marshals crossed the track to deal with a small fire in a stopped car, four cars, including Pryce's came round the bend.

The lead car swerved to avoid the second marshal but Pryce had no chance to avoid hitting him at 170mph. An extinguisher the marshal was carrying was thrown in the air and struck Pryce in the head, partially decapitating him. His car slowly coasted to a stop, eventually careering back onto the track after hitting barriers. The injuries to the marshal were so severe he was only identified when all his colleagues were called together after the race and he was the one missing. You will notice that the vast majority of all deaths in Formula One occurred within the first 30 years of the motorsport's existence. This is largely due to a lack of safety regulations and protocols that are now mandatory during all World Championship events.

For example, cockpit openings have been enlarged so that drivers can escape easier in the event of an emergency. Ayrton Senna's death led to the introduction of measures such as bodywork aerodynamic limitations, speed limits for pit lanes, and circuit modifications. Another fatal F1 accident that occurred during a test took the life of an Italian driver, Elio de Angelis, whose Brabham BT55 cartwheeled over a sidetrack barrier.

He managed to get out, but the lack of emergency assistance ultimately led to his death. Of the 52 F1 drivers that have died, thirty-two occurred at official World Championship Grand Prix races, while seven occurred during tests and 13 occurred outside of official F1 events. Let's look at the stories behind every fatality at Formula One events. Note that we are not including deaths among spectators, pit teams, or officials.

He went on to become one of Formula One's most anticipated champions. Unfortunately, while chasing Tony Brooks, the British racing driver crashed during the 1958 German Gran Prix at the Nürburgring. When navigating a turn, he went ahead too quickly, lost control and his car somersaulted.

Fatalities on the circuit aren't necessarily rare and the F1 Grand Prix races have suffered more than 15 since 1953, the first loss being that of Ferrari driver Charles de Tornaco at the Modena Grand Prix. The race hadn't even started yet when the 25-year-old driver rolled his vehicle during practice and fractured his skull. Less than a year later, during the German Grand Prix's practice run in July 1954, Onofre Marimon crashed approaching on Adenau Bridge and died instantly in the accident.

Monaco GP in 1967 was the first race of the season for Lorenzo. On the 82nd lap, running right after Hulme, the Italian lost control of his Ferrari entering the harbour chicane. The car rolled over and burst into flames with Bandini trapped inside.

Four minutes had passed before marshals pulled him out of the flaming car. Lorenzo was taken to the Princess Grace Hospital Centre with burns covering 70% of his body. Three days after the terrifying accident Lorenzo passed away. The 2005 US Grand Prix at Indianapolis is infamous for only having six cars contest the race. The entire field bar Ferrari, Jordan and Minardi withdrew from the race at the end of the formation lap after a political fallout caused by a series of Michelin tyre failures in practice. Unable to guarantee the drivers' safety or find a compromise with the teams running Bridgestone tyres, the Michelin teams chose not to contest the race, much to the fury of the thousands of fans in attendance.

Several drivers crashed, including the Haas pair"With the red flags, it's because there's no room," said four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel. But I think we largely rely on the skills that we have, and also luck, if things go wrong. Miraculously, Newman suffered a "brain bruise" and not a single broken bone. He walked out of Halifax Health Medical Center just two days later. Luck might have had something to do with it, but NASCAR deserves a great deal of credit for Newman's quick recovery and the fact that no NASCAR drivers have died in almost 20 years.

+++ In 1994 Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna had fatal accidents in Imola. During the season, tracks were defused by installing additional chicanes in 27 particularly dangerous corners. Later, the HANS system was developed to protect the head and neck area of the drivers. What happened next remains one of the most infamous and shocking crashes in the history of Formula 1 racing. The two marshals, a 25-year-old and a 19-year-old, made their way across the race track to attend to the stricken vehicle which had come to a stop next to but off the track.

As they did so two racing cars came at full speed over a small brow. The first, being driven by German driver Hans-Joachim Stuck, missed both marshals narrowly. Andrea De Cesaris started is F1 career during the 1980 season at only 21 with Alfa Romeo. In 1981, he switched for McLaren in replacement of Alain Prost.

He managed to brake 18 chassis that year earning the nickname "Andrea De Crasheris". The team even withdrew him from a race because they feared he will crash again. During qualifying, he often finished top 6 but this was nulled by his crashes. Ferrari's Phil Hill, right, won the championship after teammate and chief rival Wolfgang von Trips, left, was killed at the seventh race of the eight-race 1961 Formula 1 season. The crash at Italy also took the lives of 15 fans when the car flew into a spectator area. During his 43 years at the helm of Williams Grand Prix Engineering, his drivers won 114 races, a number exceeded only by Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes.

Seven of his drivers were crowned world champions, and his team won nine constructors' championships, an honor given to the people or groups that design the cars — a feat that only Ferrari has surpassed. Personal and professional adversity, including a car accident that rendered him a quadriplegic, to lead one of the most successful teams in the history of motorsports, died on Nov. 28 in Surrey, England. There is no obvious difference in danger between F1, IndyCar and NASCAR, with all three sports having many accidents every single year, with some of them proving to be fatal.

If you look at it by total and most recent deaths, IndyCar is the most dangerous. However, it could be said that NASCAR races are more likely to involve a crash of some sort, regardless of how bad they are. These barriers are vital, and if they are damaged and need replaced during a race, the session may be red flagged in order to allow for the necessary work to be done before the race restarts. Similar safety innovations have been implemented in IndyCar, with the aeroscreen being employed similarly to the halo of F1 cars, to protect the drivers if they crash into the collapsing barriers, and from debris. Some are preventative, and some minimize the consequences of accidents.