Formula 1 safety through a morbid lens:

let's talk about Roger Williamson

Heya, just a quick warning up front; I’m discussing death in this one. If you want to skip it, that’s totes fair; I cried writing it.

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On the 29th of July 1973 a 25 year old racing driver, Roger Williamson, died as a result of his Formula 1 car flipping upside down and catching fire during a race. At that time it was a common occurrence. Williamson was one of two drivers to die that year in Formula 1.

The event itself is well documented. A series of photos taken of another driver, David Purley, trying to save Williamson won the photographer an award. There’s even a video on YouTube of Purley trying and failing to save Williamson. For the sake of my own, fragile, mental well-being, I haven’t watched this, or sought out the photos. I’m sure you can find them if you want to look at them.

Here’s Roger Williamson in what little Grand Prix racing he did. It’s the early laps at Zandvoort. Hey, check out that massive crowd, eh.

By pure happenstance, this incident, and this driver, has appeared three times in my various readings of late. Readings of books and the internet, I mean; not tarot or tea leaves. In order of recency: His birthday was in early February, and I came upon this post from Formula One Through the Years on BlueSky (@f1throughtheyears.bsky.social‬). The day before that I came upon him in Max Mosley’s autobiography “Formula One and Beyond.” And a week before that I was listening to an interview with Jackie Stewart, in which he discussed this event. It seems common for this event to be described as a tragedy. But I don’t think that word does it justice.