Barrichello urges work on F1 safety

Ferrari driver Massa was hit in the head by a flying piece of debris and the Brazilian suffered a damaged skull as a result of the impact.

Although Massa survived the incident, it came less than a week after F2 racer Henry Surtees was killed when a flying wheel hit him during a race at Brands Hatch.

Barrichello feels the two accidents were not a coincidence and he insists something needs to be done about it.

"I honestly don't believe in coincidence in life," Barrichello said. "Things happen for a reason and I think this is the second message. Imola [1994] was a message. The cars were improved. Unfortunately we lost a boy, which is tremendously sad.

"It is not a coincidence that something happened right now. In the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA) we talked quite a lot about it yesterday - and something needs to be done. Yes. Absolutely."

He added: "We need to sit down and have a look at it. I think the cars are a hell of a lot safer, really a lot safer. But there is no coincidence on this fact that something that needs to be looked at."

World champion Hamilton agreed with Barrichello that drivers need to discuss the situation to get something done.

"During qualifying I saw the crash. It's very scary, and I do hope he is okay," said Hamilton. "It has to be a big shock for any driver to have that happen, and very unfortunate because rarely do you see it happen.

"On the positive side, with the GPDA and the FIA, they seem to have made a good step with safety. If you look at Heikki's crash, he went under the barrier there in Barcelona, whereas here the barrier did quite a good job.

"I believe things happen for a reason, and for two incidents to happen in such a short period of time, we can't ignore it.

"We've got to make sure we learn from it, and improve if we can."

Massa's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, on the other hand, said the accident was just an unfortunate occurrence and he reckons there is little to do to avoid it.

"It is just an unlucky situation what happened today," he said. "It could have happened two years ago, or it could happen five years ago.

"The cars have an open cockpit so there is always the chance that something can hit it. It is not the first time that someone has been hit and unfortunately sometimes drivers get very badly hurt or die. It is part of the risk in motor racing. For sure Felipe was very unlucky today and hopefully will be okay, but you cannot get rid of that issue.

"You would need to make a rule for a bullet proof window in front of you to get rid of that issue. It is just unfortunate that these things happen sometimes."