|
Early openwheel cars used rollbars only to an absolute minimum as they were thought to be unecessary weight! Consequently, most of the early roll bars on openwheelers were barely above helmet height and essentially almost pointless. Cages were a later addition to sedan/NASCAR racing where space was somewhat less of a design issue. After the volume of driver fatalities threatened to cause racing to be banned both here and abroad safety became a required concern and mandate in professional racing.
If you check F1 history, you'll find that until the late 1960s a driver could expect to be killed in a race incident if their career lasted more than 4 or 5 seasons- some had poorer luck than that. Several retired due to the loss of friends and concern for their own mortality. The death rate back then was horrific.
__________________
|