[CMOTD]

I am no psychiatrist but I wonder whether the return of spectators has caused mass brain fade amongst the competitors:
British Grand Prix - would Lewis have gone quite so hard into Copse if he wasn't being urged on by 140,000 flag waving Brits?

Hungarian Grand Prix - would Valteri  Bottas have misjudged his braking point so spectacularly at the first corner if it was in front of empty grandstands?

BTCC meeting Oulton Park - the majority of races were red flagged for huge accidents, Minis red flagged twice due to barrel rolling cars.

Silverstone Classic - the bad weather no doubt played a part but the gravel traps were very busy indeed with some vastly experienced drivers visiting them on a regular basis.

Does the presence of large numbers of spectators, after a year's absence, raise the adrenaline levels to the point where drivers become a bit deranged?

[Bazzer]

I would say that it is more a desire to get going again and win!!

I don't think Silverstone would have been any different with spectators or without, the stakes are incredibly high in that championship, probably more so than any F1 Championship that I have witnessed in 5 decades of following F1.

[autoavia]

I think there is some truth in saying that improvements in roll cages etc have made race cars far safer than they were years ago so many drivers seem quite happy to barge others out of the way knowing full well that the risk of serious injury is comparatively small. When this behaviour is tolerated at national and international level the same driving standards inevitably filter down into club racing where, unfortunately, some competitors land up bearing the cost of damage caused by others overly aggressive driving.
 Sure, everyone wants to win but "win at all costs" is not acceptable and can cause serious injury to other participants and officials and costs fellow competitors money to pay for damage.

 While I think the above applies to much of the motorsport that I watched over the weekend it did seem to me that a majority of the visits to the gravel traps at Silverstone were caused by simple driver error rather than entanglements caused by overly aggressive driving. Maybe the fact that many drivers were in unfamiliar cars and had a long lay off during covid restrictions played a part. 

 You haven't mentioned the terrible death of a marshall at a British club racing event on Saturday who was hit by a car which had become airborne following a collision with another competitor. My condolences to his family and a massive thank you to all the race marshalls who carried on working over the weekend in what must have been very difficult circumstances.

[woodcote]

The death of a marshal at Brands was certainly a reminder of the inherent dangers of motorsport. There's been a lot of love and appreciation shown to the 'orange army' over the weekend. W-Series racer Alice Powell has set up a Crowdfunding page for the family - details in the Autosport story here: https://www.autosport.com/national/news/...h/6640333/

[Scuderia_Turini]

Details of the Brands Hatch incident are few but it seems that a car crashed into the marshal post where the two marshals were. Strikes me that such a construction (temporary or permanent) should be robust enough to protect the marshal(s) against most impacts. Hopefully an accident investigation will reveal any failings on risk-assessment and/or duty of care.

Leo