Mosley: Burti Saved by New Safety Measures

Luciano Burti owes a big debt to Formula One safety measures introduced in the last two years, FIA president Max Mosley said on Thursday.

"There's been an enormous amount of work on safety since Schumacher's accident at Silverstone in 1999 which was very similar," the International Automobile Association head told BBC radio. "It would seem that the work that has been done between then and now has had a very beneficial effect."

Ferrari's four times World Champion Michael Schumacher speared into a tyre wall at Silverstone in July 1999, breaking his leg and ending his title hopes for that season. Burti careered into a tyre barrier at Spa at around 240 km/h on Sunday after a collision with Eddie Irvine's Jaguar at the fast Blanchimont curve.

"The principal thing is that the monocoques have been strengthened. In the Schumacher accident, the suspension penetrated the side of the monocoque and that's what broke his leg," said Mosley. "Also the whole monocoque broke."

Mosley said an extra layer of Kevlar, an extremely tough space-age material which has been applied in greater thickness since Schumacher's crash, had prevented the suspension penetrating the shell of Burti's Prost. He said there were concerns about the tyre wall, which engulfed the car, but it was too early to tell how well-founded they were.

"Of course if a car is buried in them then that has its own risks particularly if you need to get to the driver urgently," said Mosley. "The other side is that it may turn out when we have downloaded the black box that this enormous displacement of tyres was instrumental in mitigating the impact."

He cautioned that Formula One could never afford to be complacent about safety.

"The sport remains very dangerous and no-one should pretend because we've got away with it with a whole load of very serious accidents...that it's safe."