How to fix poor driving standards

By:

Marcus Simmons

Jun 3, 2015, 11:15 PM

The Formula 3 European Championship's Monza weekend attracted a lot of attention - for all the wrong reasons. MARCUS SIMMONS explains why the series is having so many accidents, and offers a few solutions

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As a passionate motorsport fan, I have to admit that last weekend was a pretty depressing one.

I was at Monza on my usual beat in the Formula 3 European Championship, where a chain reaction of potentially catastrophic crashes pretty much ruined the event amid recriminations from the officials, who abandoned the final race halfway through due to continuing poor driving standards.

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Marcus Simmons

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Marcus Simmons is the Deputy Editor of Autosport magazine. As a child he was a regular on the chalk banks of Thruxton – hence his unhealthy obsession with 1970s Formula 2 and F3 – before he became an MSA timekeeper at the age of 17. At 19, his reporting debut for Motoring News arguably overshadowed Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal as the sporting moment of June 1986, and he joined the staff in 1990 after graduating from his degree course in Plymouth. A parallel Formula First career – which was as incident-packed as his childhood exploits in show-jumping and hunter trials – finished when he wrote off his car and put himself in hospital in 1991.

Marcus moved to Autosport in the summer of 1996. Since then he has had two stints as a freelancer and a brief spell as editor of Motor Sport magazine, during which the revered green cover was revived, before he rejoined Autosport in 2008. He lives in Teddington with his wife (who, gratifyingly, grew up within earshot of Castle Combe), daughter, stepson, dog, cat and guitars, and additionally has an adult daughter and stepson.