^ this is true.... I can remeber watching videos of Jacky Iyx(sp?) walking across the start grid at Le Mans, while all the other drivers ran to their cars, back in the le mans start days. He calmly walked to his car, sat down, belted himself in, and then took off. Tons of cars were flying by him fighting for the lead. You would have the other drivers moving at racing pace, and not putting their seat belts on until they hit the Mulsanne. In the end, Jacky won the race, even after his so-called slow start. This instance led to the eventual discontinuation of the Le Mans start. And back then, the seat belt(if you could call it that) was nothing more than a belt buckle and a leather strap, in cars that were topping 150+ on the Mulsanne. I dont think manufacturers considered racecar saftey until after something catastrophic happenend. Another example i can think of was the death of Dale Earnhardt. Hans devices were worn by only a few drivers, but after his accident, they became mandatory. And im sure you could find more examples, dealing with fire suits becoming mandatory, helmets, harnesses, roll cages, and so on.

 

This is the natural progression for everything in life. You can see it in many other aspects as well. When something gets too far out of balance, it usually swings the other way like a pendulum (in this case, f1 safety). Same goes for many types of regulation/laws. When things get bad enough, people will invoke a change. It sounds like the drivers essentially formed a union and forced track owners to make things safer. Unfortunately, I don't see how things would've happened any other way either. It's human nature to push things to the point of breaking until something is done.