Friday May 9, 12:18 AM

Trulli says some F1 drivers uninterested in safety

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By Alan Baldwin

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Italian Jarno Trulli has criticised Formula One rivals who refuse to join the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA) for being uncaring about safety.

"I think they just don't care about safety," the Toyota driver told Reuters at the Turkish Grand Prix on Thursday.

"Every driver should be a member because we are talking about our safety.

"You want to contribute. Everyone should have his own opinion, we are listening to everybody and trying to follow the best for all of us, not for one of us."

Neither Ferrari's world champion Kimi Raikkonen nor McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, the two drivers who are currently first and second in the standings, are members of the GPDA.

The body acts as a common voice in talking to the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) on matters of importance to drivers, such as having proper medical teams at test circuits, and members pay an annual subscription to cover costs based on the number of points scored.

Hamilton said in March that he had not joined because he had too much going on. "It's time as much as anything," he told reporters.

"If you are part of an important organisation you have to be committed and I really don't have time for that at the moment," he added.

Trulli could not accept that: "Everybody is very busy and we are not asking anyone to work 100 percent for the GPDA, we are only asking them to be part of it," he said.

"If you don't want to be part of the GPDA, it just means that you don't want to be part of the safety improvement."

BIG ACCIDENTS

Safety concerns are always at the top of the agenda in Formula One, a sport that has not had a fatal accident since May 1994 when triple champion Ayrton Senna and Austrian Roland Ratzenberger died at Imola.

This season has already seen some big accidents, with McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen lucky to escape unscathed after his car penetrated the tyre barrier in last month's Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.

Trulli's team mate Timo Glock also had a big shunt in Australia.

Last year, BMW Sauber's Polish driver Robert Kubica was fortunate to emerge unhurt from a spectacular accident in Canada.

Kovalainen paid tribute to the safety standards on Thursday but said there was always more to do.

"It is not only luck that I came out of the crash. It is really the work that has paid off. I can't be more than thankful about that," he said.

"But we should carry on working on improving as much as we can. If there are any other areas we think we can improve, then we should go for it."

Kubica agreed: "His accident and my accident in Canada have shown that safety standards in F1 are very high and we have people working on it trying to improve more."