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Why F1's safety priorities are misplaced

The irreversible march towards a haloed Formula 1 continues. The series' flawed approach to safety, while built on good intentions, is to blame

Although, following his return to Williams from Ferrari in 1991, Nigel Mansell and I went through what may be termed a period of estrangement - I didn't like some of the things he did, and he didn't like some of the things I wrote - through most of his 13 years in Formula 1 we got along extremely well, and some of my most enjoyable, no-punches-pulled, interviews were conducted with Nigel.

The times, of course, were different. To organise an interview in this era means setting it up well ahead of time with the relevant team's PR staff, but back in the day F1 people were rather less rarefied: you simply spoke to the driver or engineer or team principal, and agreed a time and place. I remember, for example, one year interviewing Mansell over breakfast in his hotel room in Detroit, after which we walked to the track, and he got on with his day's work.

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