As the international governing body for all motorsport, the Federation Internationale du Automobile or the FIA as it is more commonly known, has created global standards for driver safety. Spearheaded by safety advancements largely pioneered in Formula One™, the FIA has created minimal impact requirements for all types of race cars in order to improve driver safety.
These crash tests utilize an actual race car, sacrificed in the name of safety and must be done in an FIA-approved facility with an FIA Technical Delegate present to independently verify the results.
The frontal impact test requires that the car, with all relevant equipment fitted, carry a 75 kilogram dummy to the impact point at a speed of 14.0 meters per second. A car with the correct impact structures built in will withstand the impact such that:
- The average deceleration over the first 150mm of deformation does not exceed 5g ;
- The average deceleration of the trolley does not exceed 40g ;
- The peak deceleration in the chest of the dummy does not exceed 60g for more than a cumulative 3ms, this being the resultant of data from three axes.
Furthermore, there must be no damage to the survival cell or to the mountings of the safety belts or fire extinguishers
Similar tests with appropriate impact threshold are also carried out for side and rear impacts as well as on the rollover hoop.
The advancements carried out by the FIA over the past two decades have dramatically improved driver safety, with drivers routinely walking away totally unscathed from even the worst impacts.
