Red Bull’s design guru, Adrian Newey, admits the death of British IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon personally troubled him.
The 52-year-old played a critical role as an IndyCar designer in the early to mid eighties and says the series, in which the safety of the cars hasn’t changed much in many years, must learn lessons from Wheldon’s fatal accident last Sunday.
“Certainly in my case, to have been in charge of the design of the car where a driver lost his life, there would be something wrong with you if you didn’t question what you were doing at that point,” he told the Telegraph during a media visit to the Milton Keynes factory on Tuesday.
“In the four years that I did IndyCars I was fortunate enough that there were no tragic accidents and nobody was really badly hurt. But fundamentally, if you are racing around an oval with concrete walls and lots of cars going at very high speeds in close proximity, it is going to be a recipe for large accidents — particularly with open-wheel cars.
“It is always a terrible moment for the sport if somebody is killed. It doesn’t matter whether it is the formula you are involved in or not.
“It is a shockwave for the sport that we always need to learn. We are all aware of the fact that [risk] exists but it is one thing being aware of it and it is another thing when it happens.”
IndyCar will introduce a far safer design in 2012, in which Wheldon played a pivotal role in testing and ensuring the safety of the chassis was further advanced than the current. Dallara, the designers behind the car, will name it the DW-001, in memory of the 33-year-old.
