Safer cars are making reckless drivers, says Mark Webber

FORMULA One drivers have become too aggressive because they have been able to walk away from major accidents, says Mark Webber.

MOTORSPORT: Formula One drivers have become too aggressive because they have been able to walk away from major accidents but their "luck will run out one day", warns Mark Webber.

The Australian says F1's dramatic safety improvements have seen drivers adopt a dangerous feeling of invincibility.

His comments follow the spectacular accident sparked by Lotus driver Romain Grosjean at the recent Belgian Grand Prix at Spa that led to a multi-car pile-up.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was lucky to escape serious injury as one car missed his head by centimetres.

It was Grosjean's seventh accident of the season. He and Williams driver Pastor Maldonado have been involved in the most incidents but neither has been injured.

Webber, who has also been involved in death-defying crashes in his career, says drivers have so much faith in the safety of their cars that they are taking risks without thinking of the fatal consequences.

"The drivers have to take some responsibility," Webber wrote in his BBC column. "In the last 10 years, the level of aggressiveness has ramped up a bit just because guys know that usually they'll be able to walk away from a crash.

"But you can be aggressive and safe or aggressive and unsafe. I've always said F1 is not a finishing school when it comes to racing.

"If Grosjean's crash in Belgium had happened in open racing, it would have been fine. But there were lots of cars around, the track is narrow there and very quickly it became a nasty accident."

Webber said overtaking had become much easier with new tyres and driver aids, so there was no need for such "desperate" starts.

The Red Bull driver says it is likely a type of forward-mounted roll bar or wheel protection could be introduced in the future for extra head protection.

"Head protection is a controversial subject and, unusually for me, I'm still on the fence on it," Webber wrote. "Open-wheel, open-cockpit racing is what most racing drivers want to do -- it requires incredible precision and they are the best racing cars in the world.

"The Grosjean incident, and a similar one involving David Coulthard and Alexander Wurz in Australia in 2007, happened because of cars climbing over each other and being launched into the air. That also happened to me when I flipped in Valencia in 2010.

"So should you shut off that option somehow by enclosing the wheels but leave the cockpit open? Or leave the wheels open and create more cockpit protection?

"We have been lucky and we all know that luck will run out one day."

Meanwhile, Matthew Brabham, the grandson of triple F1 world champion Jack Brabham, has taken a major step in his bid to race F1.

The 18-year-old son of Jack's son Geoff won the USF2000 Championship and the rookie of the year award at the Virginia International Raceway.

The third-generation driver secured his first championship by finishing a cautious eighth in the final round of the hotly contested series.

Needing to finish no worse than 14th to win the title, Brabham drove within himself to bring home the Cape Motorsports entry safely.

AAP