Brundle drove Hamilton's Mercedes: 'Didn't actually feel particularly safe'
F1 News
Driver safety is an important issue in Formula One. The pundit and former driver Martin Brundle had the chance to drive one of Lewis Hamilton's recent cars. The Briton understands why changes were made but did not feel safe when he sat in Lewis Hamilton's car.
"I recently drove one of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes and you're buried inside the car with the halo and the headdress and the HANS device around your neck. And I didn't actually feel particularly safe, I felt more trapped." the Formula One pundit shared on Reddit in Sky Sports' AMA.
Martin Brundle took part in 165 Grands Prix in F1 from 1984 until 1996, with the exception of driving in 1990, and drove for Benetton and McLaren among others. During his career, the Briton also finished on the podium on nine occasions.
"I've driven, for example, in Senna's beautiful black and gold Lotus Renault turbo. And it's wonderful because you can see everything in front of you, but it's not very safe. [In my era] if you crashed, you were pretty much going to break something: your feet, your ankles or your legs as I certainly did," he continued about his experience.
Brundle agrees with Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton has previously said that he has a problem with his seat's positioning in his car. Together with Mercedes' early struggles with the current generation of cars, the Briton struggled to adapt. The seven-time world champion did return to winning ways at Silverstone this year and then also won the Belgian GP at Spa-Francorchamps after George Russell was disqualified.
"The cars are so long, they're much longer than I used to race in Formula 1, they’re probably more akin to the cars I raced in Le Mans. But it's the pedals. It's the steering wheel, it's the feedback from the car on how linear everything is that that matters as well," Brundle added.
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12 October 2024
