Fear means faster in F1

Formula One drivers turn the natural fear impulses of stress and danger into speed on the circuit.

Button's accident highlighted the ever-present dangers of F1

The huge crash suffered by British driver Jenson Button in practice in the last round at Monaco - the BAR driver was prevented by doctors from competing in the race after his 180 mph shunt - highlighted the dangers inherent in the sport.

But it is fear of that danger, drivers say, which allows them to maintain their racing edge.

"Fear is an emotion that has been given to us over millions of years of evolution to help us in dangerous situations," 1996 F1 World Champion Damon Hill told the BBC World Service's Outlook programme.

"There are two things that can happen: one is where you become frightened, and you actually don't cope; and the other is that it helps you cope in saving yourself.

"That's what you utilise - as a racing driver, that's what you're doing; you're putting yourself in a dangerous situation to stay alive."

Adrenaline hype

Dr David Cranston, who provides medical back-up at Formula One races, told Outlook that the fear could have extreme effects on the body.

"[1976 champion] James Hunt was physically sick before races and would actually get out of his car and feel ghastly before he started a race," he said.

You know the risks when you get in a car - at least you should do - and you should go into it knowing and accepting those risks

Damon Hill

"That's a pretty normal phenomenon - it's all part of the adrenaline hype, which is essential for the driver to have the maximum cutting edge and be able to perform at the highest possible level."

Dr Cranston also highlighted the effects that a colossal impact - such as that sustained by BAR driver Jenson Button - can have on the human body.

"The accident recently at Monaco - sideways at 180 miles an hour - pulled about 30 G," Dr Cranston said. "That's why Button was not allowed to race after the accident occurred."

The skeletal structure is restrained by seat belts, while a recently introduced Head and Neck Support does just what it suggests.

"But what happens to the soft parts of the body doesn't stop," Dr Cranston said.

"For instance, the skull will stop, but the brain - which is very soft inside - will impact against the side of the cranium."

'I'm no Iceman'

Hill - as team-mate to F1 legend Ayrton Senna - saw at first hand the very worst that a crash can do, when Senna was killed in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix after hitting a concrete wall following an unknown mechanical failure.

But Hill said that seeing the accident had no effect on his desire to race.

Senna was killed when a suspension arm pierced his helmet

"Immediately after that, you have the shock of what's just happened - but I took the decision then that if I had been racing in the belief that that risk wasn't there then I was fooling myself, and I'd be a hypocrite if I stopped," he said.

"You know the risks when you get in a car - at least you should do - and you should go into it knowing and accepting those risks."

And he added he was more worried about the risks that drivers who claimed they were not frightened posed to themselves and others.

"Kimi Raikkonen was called the Iceman by certain people, and he said 'I don't know why they call me the Iceman, I get frightened too'," Hill said.

"I thought that was a very brave admission. Certainly, Ayrton Senna spoke all the time of the fear that he went through."

Dangerous days

But aside from the black weekend in Imola in 1994, when Senna and Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger were both killed, an F1 event had not claimed the life of any driver since Riccardo Paletti in 1982.

The risks involved in Formula One have changed greatly since the inaugural World Championship in 1950 and the two decades after, when drivers competed knowing they may never come back from the circuit.

F1 was much more dangerous when Moss raced

Seasons during which two or three drivers perished while racing were not uncommon.

But some drivers who competed in that time now say they feel that the comparative lack of danger has robbed the sport of its essence.

"The modern Formula One car is the most efficient way of going round a circuit with as little interest and enjoyment as can happen," the great Stirling Moss told Outlook.

"Danger on your shoulder is something that is very worrying, but it is something that spices up what you're doing.

"It's rather like cooking without salt if there's no danger."