In a lot of other sporting codes there is always the possibility of a career threatening injury, but generally it’s not going to be life threatening. It’s possible, but unlikely. In motorsport, every time the green flag drops, there’s a chance that serious injury or death can take place. Most drivers say they don’t dwell on this aspect of the sport and of the serious danger to life and limb they go through at every race meeting. If the subject was on their minds, it would certainly have a detrimental effect on their level of performance. The safety in motorsport has increased dramatically over the decades, but you only have to listen to some of the older guys, to understand that it is a miracle they made it through their careers to survive and tell the stories. To listen to Sir Jack Brabham, for example, and hear him talk of how many of his friends and fellow competitors died in the sport, often in horrific circumstances, shows us how fearless and focused these guys were, back in the day. They drove cars with practically zero protection from major impact or rollover. That’s not to say that today’s drivers aren’t as focused, but it does mean that they can drive the car to it’s limits knowing that if  a serious accident takes place, they have a reasonably good chance of survival. These days, with HANS devices and drivers safety cells in race cars, huge, high speed crashes can take place and often drivers miraculously walk away relatively unscathed. In recent times the Mike Rockenfeller http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C3sSrn7RGw, Allan McNish http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJDGaiAZm6M and Mark Webber http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GQ0MBMhDjo race crashes were all extreme, but they all survived, still in one piece. The tub takes most of the heavy impact but the trauma of rapid deceleration can still cause serious injury, often internally. Sadly, again this year, the sport has had to deal with the loss of some fine drivers and it brings home the reality that fatalities can still happen, even with all the driver protection in place. The same statement usually follows the passing of another driver in a race incident……He died doing what he loved.