MONTE-CARLO, MONACO – MAY 26: Jenson Button of Great Britain driving the (22) McLaren Honda Formula 1 Team McLaren MP4-31 Honda RA616H Hybrid turbo on track during practice for the Monaco Formula One Grand Prix at Circuit de Monaco on May 26, 2016 in Monte-Carlo, Monaco. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)

Open wheel racing is as safe as it has ever been but it is still highly dangerous. One vulnerable part of the car is the fact that the driver’s head is exposed and in the past few years, even getting hit with something light, when hit at speeds between 100 and 200 mph, can have tragic consequences.

In the first practice session for the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix, a drain cover was dislodged by point leader Nico Rosberg, coming out of the first corner named Sainte Devote. The reported 20 pound drain cover bounced around the track, causing former champion Jenson Button to run over it and completely destroy his front wing.

Drain covers are typically welded down all around the Circuit de Monaco, who uses city streets from the principality to form the course, but for some reason either wasn’t or still broke off. Button, with no time to react, ran over the drain cover and damaged his car.

Button was lucky that the drain cover stayed on the ground because if it had bounced in the air, could’ve been a lot worse if it entered the cockpit area. Most notably, in 2009, Felipe Massa was knocked unconscious and suffered life threatening injuries when a suspension spring hit him in the head. Massa survived and was able to make a full recovery but it was a long recovery. Most recently, IndyCar driver Justin Wilson was killed when a piece of front wing hit him in the head as he was driving through a crash last year.

There have been experiments from teams to have some sort of “halo” around the front of the driver to keep from something flying into the cockpit and hitting the driver. There is currently a debate on whether or not something like that will work or if it will hurt the integrity of open wheel racing. Considering this is really the last frontier in terms of coming up with a fixable solution to keep a driver from suffering a fatal injury, it wouldn’t hurt Formula 1, IndyCar and any other open cockpit car to at least look into finding a solution. Jenson Button was lucky today, but if that drain cover had been a couple feet higher, it may have been fatal.

About Phillip Bupp

Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.

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