They say that motorsport is dangerous, no matter what level of competition from go-karts to F1, tin tops to trucks every professional driver enters a race knowing they might have a crash. Like goals in football motor racing just wouldn’t work without crashes, it’s part of the drama and the excitement and over the years Formula One has produced some of the most spectacular crashes and controversial moments in international motor racing.

In the modern era crowd and driver safety is the priority, a far cry from the limited budget high risk era of the 1950′s and 60′s when drivers had a 50% mortality rate and the ‘Gentleman racer’ was born. In the days of Fangio, Moss, Hawthorn and Hill the developments in safety were non existent with the majority of drivers choosing to avoid wearing seatbelts with the risk of fire being the biggest danger to drivers and spectators.

In the era’s of the gentleman racer and the latter ‘playboy’ era’s of James Hunt in the 70′s and 80′s drivers were portrayed as true racers, with many being unable to reveal their fear of death or serious injury behind the wheel.

That was until Sir Jackie Stewart voiced his concerns about the risks to drivers in the sport, as a triple World Champion the Scot had come close to catastrophe, in the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa Francorchamps Stewart slid off the track at nearly 170 mph, colliding with a telegraph pole and coming to rest in a farmers field.

The grossly inadequate safety precautions and the lack of adequate medical services meant that marshalls and drivers had to risk their own lives to save the World Champion.

The development of Formula One as a spectator sport and as a brand has lead to widespread development and improvement, despite some huge crashes over the years the risk to driver and spectator has reduced significantly with just two fatalities in the 1990′s and no driver fatalities in the 21st century.

In the last two decades there have been some spectacular moments from Prost vs. Senna at McLaren and Hill vs. Schumacher, some of the greatest single battles have lead to some of the single greatest and spectacular crashes. There have also been some brutal crashes in recent years with Martin Donnelly’s crash in a Lotus at Jerez in 1990 being a particularly striking example.

From the pile-up at Spa in 1998 to Massa’s lucky escape in 2009 the modern era of Formula One has lead to some big incidents but thanks to the new technology it has avoided the fatalities of yesteryear, the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenburger in the same weekend at Imola in 1994 proving to be a watershed moment for the development of safety in the sport. In 2010 there have been some spectacular moments like Mark Webber’s collision with Heikki Kovalainen in Valencia, proving that F1 cars really can fly, with a bit of assistance in the process.

It is safe to say there will always be crashes in Formula One, some big, some small, some controversial and some innocuous. Some of the crashes in this years campaign have proven just how far the sport has come since it’s relatively low budget birth and its development as one of the most lucrative championships on earth.

After so many spectacular moments over the years it is difficult to pinpoint what has been the most dramatic crash to occur in Formula One, personally I still find the 1998 Spa downpour and ensuing pile-up as the most jaw dropping crash ever to be seen at any level of international motorsport. Since that race there have been some dramatic crashes in the championship but none have been quite so breathtaking as the rain soaked start to the Belgian Grand Prix.

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Click on the images below to see how McLaren and Ferrari fare in the battle of the Formula One WAGs!

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