F1

Ranking the Top 10 Most Risky f1 Circuits in the World

by
Sabyasachi Biswas
August 28, 2021

Formula 1 is a very fast sport. With speed, comes a great risk. The level of risk that remains on this sport js unlike any other. A driver can breathe his last in the blink of an eye and there won’t be any second chance to rectify the mistakes. This fault, that we’re talking about here mostly depends on the circuits that held the race every year. The safer the circuit is, safer the drivers are and vice versa.

Although F1 has evolved a lot and the sport has become much much safer over the years, but there are few circuits that are still deemed to be dangerous. In today’s list we’ll talk about such dangerous circuits that are considered dangerous. So, lights out and away we go.

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#10. Albert Park Circuit, Australia

Starting with tenth place, we have Albert Park Circuit from Australia. Located in and around Albert Park Lake, this a street circuit that’s three kilometres south of central Melbourne. This circuit usually starts off the traditional Formula One season-opening every year. This track officially hosts the Australian Grand Prix every year. Among all the circuits we have in the list, this is the least dangerous. The Albert Park Circuit is going through a major overhaul this year and has been cancelled for the straight two years because of Coronavirus. The circuit was deemed dangerous because it is easy to drive and it’s a very fast track, so the drivers get over competitive and crash onto each other.

#9. Bahrain International Circuit, Bahrain

Coming up next in at eighth place we have Bahrain International Circuit from Bahrain. Situated in the
Sakhir city of Bahrain, this track officially hosts the Bahrain Grand Prix. One of the fantastic circuits ever built, this one has multiple layouts too. The circuit initially had a problem sand because the circuit is situated in the middle of the desert. There were worries that sand would blow onto the circuit and disrupt the race. However, organizers were able to keep the sand off the track by spraying an adhesive on the sand around the track. Apart from this, the track also saw the horrific crash by Roman Grosjean in his Haas in 2020. Roman’s very lucky to have gotten away with a accident like that, proving that the circuit might prove fatal because it’s very fast and barriers weren’t safe enough.

#8. Silverstone Circuit, United Kingdom

Up ahead in eighth place we have Silverstone Circuit from the United Kingdom. This circuit is home to the Mercedes AMG F1 team and official track for British Grand Prix. Located in Silverstone of Northamptonshire town in United Kingdom, this track is called the home of British Racing. This circuit is one of the most famous racing circuit all around the world and is quite known for it’s speed. Being a very high speed track, the circuit often sees dangerous high speed crashes almost every single year, most recently 2021 Championship leader Max Verstappen was hit by runner’s up Lewis Hamilton. Luckily, Max escaped unscathed thanks to the superior safety barriers. The track was modified in 1990 to 1991 and underwent major overhaul that reduces high speed straights and increased driver’s safety.

#7. Red Bull Ring, Austria

Next up at seventh place we have Red Bull Ring from Austria. Located in the high hills of Spielberg, of the Styrian province in Austria, this track has been on the news for hosting two back to back Grand Prix races in 2020 and in 2021. This is the official track for Austrian Grand Prix and is home to Red Bull Racing. Since the track is situated in the hilly areas, there is an elevation of 65 metres in height. The track is very high speed track and prone to high speed crashes. The Red Bull Ring was modified twice after repeated high speed crashes, especially the Bosch Kurve, a 180-degree banked downhill right-hand corner with almost no run-off area. Moreover, some of the track was just road with little to no protection at all. Serious high speed accidents had taken place in 1985 and 1987 on this circuit and no wonder why this track falls under one of the riskiest F1 circuit ever.

#6. Baku City Circuit, Azerbaijan

In our list, at sixth spot we have Baku City Circuit from Azerbaijan. This Baku City Circuit is a motor racing street circuit located in Baku, Azerbaijan constructed near Baku Boulevard. This circuit hosts the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in F1 and is the third longest circuit in F1 after Belgian Spa-Francorchamps and Saudi Arabian Jeddah Street Circuit. This track is also a street circuit and has length of 6.003 kilometres. Being a street circuit, this track has bad reputation of being too unpredictable and accident prone. When the first race took place here in 2016 as the European Grand Prix, there were numerous incidents that lead up to the bad name of this circuit. The drivers were concerned about the barrier that they were too close to the main road and in case of any high speed crash, it can prove fatal and the track wears away way too much rubber, sources in Pirelli (F1’s official tyre suppliers) said. All these factors deemed this track as potentially dangerous.

#5. Circuit de Monaco, Monaco

Up next in fifth place we have Circuit de Monaco from Monaco. This track is situated on the city streets of Monte Carlo and La Condamine around the harbour of the Principality of Monaco. It is commonly referred to as “Monte Carlo” because it is largely inside the Monte Carlo neighbourhood of Monaco. This track hosts the Monaco Grand Prix in F1. This is a street circuit and it’s needless to say how notorious the street circuits can be. From most of the races being abandoned at times for crashes at the barriers, this track is the driver’s nightmare. From safety car to yellow flags, to red flags to races coming to a sudden halt, this is the every race scenario in Monaco. Most of the drivers feel disinterested to race in street circuits and Lewis Hamilton is one among them. This track has many serious accidents but most notably four deaths from accidents, such as in 1948, Norman Linnecar died of the crash, in 1952, Luigi Fagioli died. In 1962, Dennis Taylor died of the same and in 1967, Lorenzo Bandini died.

#4. Autodromo Nazionale di Monza

Now in the fourth place Autodromo Nazionale di Monza from Italy. Built in 1922, the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza is a historic race track near the city of Monza, north of Milan, in Italy. This is one of the ancient tracks in the history of Formula 1. The track has been hosting races back to back since 1949 to till date with an exception in 1980. The track was the world’s third purpose-built motor racing circuit after Brooklands and Indianapolis. This circuit hosts the Italian Grand Prix in F1. This circuit has long history of fatal crashes that has taken lives of many people and many were gravely injured. Most prominent of them are when Jochen Rindt was killed after crashing at the Parabolica during practice for the 1970 Italian Grand Prix and most recently in 2000 when Paolo Gislimberti, a marshal hit by debris from a first-lap accident at the Roggia chicane during the Italian Grand Prix.

#3. Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium

Up next into the podium place we have Belgium’s Spa Circuit. Situated in Stavelot, Belgium, the circuit is not in Spa but lies in the vicinity of the town of Francorchamps within the boundaries of the municipality which is a part in the boundaries of Malmedy, Liege Province of Belgium. This circuit was in news for the fatal crash took place in Formula 2 between Anthoine Hubert and Juan Manuel Correa. The incident resulted in the death of Hubert and serious injury to Correa as the feature race has been cancelled and the scheduled sprint race a day later. However, that was cancelled too, whilst the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix went ahead that year. After this accident, the authority began to think about the safety of the drivers and took to modify the track.

#2. Marina Bay Street Circuit, Singapore

In at runner’s up place we have Marina Bay Street Circuit from Singapore. Located in the Downtown Core and Kallang in Singapore, this is one of the most famous circuit in the world. Being a street circuit, Marina Bay is already dangerous for fast speeding F1 cars. The track received heavy criticism by the F1 drivers for being excessively bumpy, particularly on Raffles Boulevard between turns 5 and 7, that results in a very unforgiving circuit, especially given the hot and humid conditions of the Singapore climate. Not only this, but also it received backlashes from F1 greats like Lewis Hamilton, Sébastien Bourdais and Fernando Alonso, expressed their concern about the high and harsh kerbs at the chicane at turn 10 of the street circuit. Lewis Hamilton commented that driving in this circuit is twice as hard as driving in Monaco. Ferrari’s former driver Felipe Massa compared the kerbs akin to “little tortoises that would wreck the car if you get something wrong”. However, the tracks have been reshaped and modified to make it less dangerous and it’s still one of the very dangerous street Circuit to race into.

#1. Nurburgring, Germany

And now, the topmost dangerous track and it’s none other than Nurburgring. The Nürburgring circuit is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located just over an hour south of the historic city of Cologne, in the heart of the Eifel mountains. It is situated in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany and officially hosts the German Grand Prix. The Nurburgring circuit is deemed to be most dangerous F1 circuit ever existed. However, the circuit has been reconstructed and reshaped into a much safer one after the horrific Niki Lauda crash. The scary Nordschleife version of the Nurburgring was completed in 1927 but after eventually proving too big and too scary for F1, the track authority forced a re-think, with the more manageable, more modern Grand Prix circuit opened in 1984. Apart from Niki Lauda’s accident there were many accidents took place in this circuit.