Richards Praises F1 Safety after Button Crash

BAR Formula One boss David Richards thanked his lucky stars today after watching Britain's Jenson Button emerge unscathed from a serious crash in Monaco.

The accident brought back terrible memories of one nine years ago that left Austrian Karl Wendlinger in a coma and fighting for his life.

Wendlinger, a Sauber driver who recovered fully from the 1994 accident but left Formula One after six further races the following year, smashed sideways into the barriers as he left the tunnel on the fastest point of the circuit.

Brazilian champion Ayrton Senna and Austrian Roland Ratzenberger had died 11 days before at the San Marino Grand Prix in the last fatal accidents Formula One has suffered during a race weekend.

Button's accident was almost a carbon copy of Wendlinger's but, while remaining in hospital overnight for observation, the 23-year-old was shaken but unhurt.

Richards, who took over BAR at the end of 2001 and was boss of Benetton in 1998, was glad that he ran a team now rather than in the days when serious driver injuries were commonplace.

"I think it's a case of just how far things have moved forward in safety in Formula One these days, all the work that has gone on in the last few years," said Richards.

"Great credit to the FIA (International Automobile Federation), I was talking to (FIA president) Max (Mosley) about it," he added. "In this day and age it is socially unacceptable to have accidents where people are seriously injured, if they are preventable accidents.

"I couldn't have run a team in the era of the 60s or the 70s or the 80s for that matter. I was at the circuit when Jacques (Villeneuve)'s father was killed and I couldn't have run a team in those days, I just wouldn't have stood up to that."

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 World Champion with Williams, drives for BAR. His father Gilles was killed at Zolder in practice for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix.