After last week’s tragic demise of F2 driver Anthoine Hubert and the severe injury of Juan Manuel Correa in the same crash, fans have come to appreciate that driver safety is much more important than anything. There were calls to make F1 and motorsports even more safe, be it at the cost of excitement, with even Sebastian Vettel supporting the movement. However, this week another horrid crash has happened involving F3 driver Alex Peroni in Monza ahead of the Italian Grand Prix. He hit a sausage kerb at an angle which made his car airborne and almost landed over a marshal. Luckily, he walked away safely from it. 

However, the real question comes as to who decided to place a random sausage kerb there in the first place. Was the FIA waiting for a tragedy to happen? Because if you look at the videos available of Alex Peroni’s crash, it is a real mystery how he walked away safely from it.

However, better late than never. FIA has agreed to remove all sausage kerbs now from the track especially around Parabolica, Monza’s super speedy curve. Race director Michael Masi was seen on the track earlier inspecting the crash site and the kerbs along the corner.

Max Verstappen was perhaps the first driver who called out against these sausage kerbs reacting to the severe F3 crash.

“In F1 we have fewer problems with the high kerbs. Our cars have much more ground clearance in the back than the F3 or F2 cars. But they should remove the kerbs there. We now have clear rules for track limits”

Naturally people started questioning FIA’s safety standards immediately post the crash and rightfully so. It made no sense to have a kerb out of nowhere placed where it was.

Robin Frijns,  on Twitter he immediately said: “I think this is the time to go back to grass and gravel, instead of asphalt and sausage curbs to keep drivers between the white lines.”

Alexander Wurz, the president of GPDA, is not a fan of the curbs. “The reason why the FIA ​​started to remove high curb stones brings us back to Imola 1994 … I don’t like the sausage curbs and I never liked it. Today we saw another reason why in the F3 at Monza they ( usually) a bad solution.

Jack Aitken, on the other hand, is much less outspoken about sausage curbs. “Before people start talking about how unsafe the curbs are, I want to say that it looks like the curb failed or broke this time.”

According to Aitken, the FIA ​​is doing everything it can to guarantee the safety of the drivers. “Of course we have to look at it, but we have to realize that the men and women at the FIA ​​are working very hard to ensure that it is arranged and that it is very difficult. I am very happy that Alex is okay.”

Initially intended to keep drivers away from breaching track restrictions in order to gain an advantage, why they were chosen over gravel traps is a question FIA should be answering right now. Luckily the F3 driver walked away safely, but what if it had been a bit more severe?

Its time FIA really looks into its safety standards and policies.