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Mark Webber says Vegas IndyCar race was 'too much'

Mark Webber believes races like the one where Dan Wheldon was killed are simply 'too much', the Australian hoping IndyCar learns a 'heavy lesson' from it

Red Bull driver Webber reckons racing at the kind of speeds witnessed at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway is too dangerous and thinks the series should do something to put an end to that.

"IndyCar can learn a heavy lesson from Sunday's crash," Webber wrote in his column for the BBC. "What organisers certainly have to do is work out how to stop cars leaving the ground and flying into the air in such situations.

"I've never raced on an oval track but I've spoken to a lot of the guys who have. One thing they don't like is the element of pack racing, especially on a short oval such as Las Vegas.

"Running three-wide on a track like that is not really racing. You're just getting a slipstream. Drivers look to move into a different lane - from the top to the bottom of the track, say - and things can happen.

"At certain speeds, that is fine and no one gets badly injured. But when you're doing 220mph in an open-wheeler, the cars can leave the ground by five or six metres and someone's going to get seriously hurt.

"To have 30-odd single-seaters, nose to tail, with cold brakes. it's too much. Drivers feel this needs looking at.

"In the accident that killed Dan, nearly half the field were running together and half of them ended up in the air. That's not right."

The Australian says he feels Formula 1 is safer than other series like IndyCar or MotoGP, although he admits he is aware there are still risks involved.

"Safety has come on a long way in F1 and it's a different type of racing to IndyCars anyway," he added.

"Don't get me wrong, I know there are risks. Valencia could have gone either way for me, that's completely clear. But I feel it's safer than IndyCars. Or rallying or MotoGP, for that matter. That gives me confidence to race."

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