Ex McLaren driver: "Verstappen had died several times in my time"

Former McLaren driver Bruno Giacomelli, who was active in Formula 1 in the seventies and eighties, thinks that Max Verstappen would not have been able to drive in F1 in his time without a few cracks. He says the difference in safety between then and now has changed a lot.

Formula 1 safety has greatly improved over the past 26 years. Especially after the jet-black weekend of Imola in 1994, where Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger were killed, a lot of progress has been made.

Because the sport used to be so much more dangerous Giacomelli thinks the five titles of Juan Manuel Fangio are worth a lot more than, for example, the seven titles of Michael Schumacher. The Italian also warns Verstappen, because he thinks the driving style of the Red Bull Racing driver would be too dangerous for a decade like that of 1980.

"Looking at the results, Schumacher has won seven world championships", said Giacomelli in an interview with Motorsport.com. "Fangio won five, but Fangio won them with different cars and at a time when people were dying, you know what I mean?"

"It means that Verstappen would have died at least three or four times if he had driven the cars of the eighties I was driving", says Giacomelli. According to the Italian, nowadays drivers don't have any fears anymore in a Formula 1 car, because the car is so safe.

Giacomelli only knew those fears during a crash: "During accidents I really felt fear. In those few seconds that an accident lasts, that you are conscious. The first thing you think and say is: I don't want to hurt myself. What are you doing? You hold the steering wheel, try to get as stiff as possible and wait for the crash. That's the moment of fear."