My mother went to the USGP in Watkins Glen back in '69. When Graham Hill almost got himself killed, the tire from his car landed a few feet from where she was sitting. Many drivers still held the foolish belief that you were safer if you WEREN"T strapped into the car.

F1 had a lot of deaths up through the mid 80s. You used to be able to see some rather fiery crashes on youtube. Not sure if they're still up. Imola in '94 is when Senna and Roland Ratzenberger were both killed in the same weekend. No one gave a shit about Ratzenberger, but Senna's death shocked everyone to say the least. It was mere chance that Senna died. He didn't have a single broken bone in his body. He was killed when part of the suspension went through his visor and into his brain just above his eye. Didn't even penetrate that deep. It was after that incident that people really started taking safety seriously. That's when the HANS device usage became mandatory, and the car cockpits changed to put the driver farther back and lower.

It's funny that F1 tends to not take things seriously until they decide it's time to take things seriously. The safety issue is a prime example. They didn't put a lot of emphasis on safety until Senna was killed. But now look at it. It's almost sterile in that regard. There have been some close calls, but to go 18 years in motor racing without a single death is incredible. It's like the pit stops. Pit stops used to be a rare event in F1 because they were known to take minutes to complete. Initially, F1 hired NASCAR consultants to help them quicken their pit times. Now without refueling, F1 is doing pit stops in under 3 seconds.

The movie Gran Prix is definitely worth watching. It takes place during the mid-late 60s. James Garner did his own driving. Several of the big F1 teams of the day contributed to the production. The story was typical of what you got in the 60s, but it was still able to show you what a cutthroat business it is.