MELBOURNE, Australia — Formula One demonstrated once again Sunday that it might not know how to design racing rules that guarantee a great show, but it does know how to write regulations to build racing cars to save drivers’ lives in case of an accident.
On Lap 17 of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, after a high-speed accident from which no driver would have survived 25 years ago, Fernando Alonso, the two-time world champion driver for the McLaren Honda team, climbed out of the wreck uninjured, in one of the most horrific crashes the series has witnessed in years.