Destructive crashes were common in Alan Jones's era and some drivers did not walk safely away, like Jones did here at the 1980 Dutch GP. (Getty Images: LAT Images)
The motor racing world is mourning the death of Alan Jones, the 1980 Formula 1 world champion, who died on Thursday aged 80.
The Australian legend, a winner of 12 grands prix, leaves a huge legacy both on and off the track after a life dedicated to the sport.
As tributes flood in for Jones, and reflections of his tremendous career are written, his death has brought into focus the dangerous and deadly era of motorsport he competed in.
Jones raced and won in an era when the safety of drivers, marshals and spectators was not front of mind.
In an already dangerous sport, the period Jones raced in is often remembered much more for its tragedies than its triumphs.
And it was tragedies that had a major impact on Jones's career, right from the very beginning.
Jones begins F1 career at tragic Spanish Grand Prix
Alan Jones made his F1 debut at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix, one of the darkest and most controversial F1 weekends in history.
Rolf Stommelen suffered serious leg injuries, while five spectators were killed when his car crossed the barrier. (Getty Images: Sutton Images/David Phipps)
Rolf Stommelen suffered serious leg injuries, while five spectators were killed when his car crossed the barrier. (Getty Images: Sutton Images/David Phipps)
There was drama from the start with fears barriers at the Montjuïc Circuit in Barcelona were not bolted in correctly.
Members of the Grand Prix Drivers Association went on strike before practice, but the race went ahead after alleged rumours that the Guardia Civil, Spanish law enforcement, would seize the cars, which were at the Montjuïc stadium.
Jones qualified 21st for Hesketh Racing, but would retire just three laps into the race after a collision.
But the horror of the day was still to come.
Race leader Rolf Stommelen went off the circuit on lap 26 due to a broken rear wing, with his Hill-Ford car crossing the barrier into the crowd.
Five spectators were killed and Stommelen was seriously injured. The race continued for another four laps it was called off.
The 1975 Spanish Grand Prix holds another slice of history, with Lella Lombardi becoming the first, and to this date, only female driver to score F1 world championship points after placing sixth.
Jones gets F1 drive after fatal accident
After falling out with Team Surtees at the end of the 1976 F1 season, Jones was out of the series for the start of 1977.
He would get his chance to return to F1 following a harrowing and tragic accident in South Africa.
Welshman Tom Pryce and a track marshal were killed in an incident that was indicative of the poor and unimaginably lacklustre safety measures of the day.
Renzo Zorzi, who drove for Shadow, suffered a fuel leak and pulled off to the side of the main straight at the Kyalami circuit.
A small fire broke out, leading to a pair of marshals running onto the track to extinguish the flame. One driver was able to swerve and avoid the marshals, but not Pryce, Zorzi's teammate.
Pryce was unsighted and drove at full speed into 19-year-old marshal Frederik Jansen van Vuuren, killing the teenager on impact.
Van Vuuren was carrying a massive fire extinguisher that hit Pryce in the helmet, killing the Welshman instantly.
Race winner Niki Lauda was preparing to celebrate on the podium, until a member of tyre manufacturer Goodyear was able to get to the Austrian and inform him of Pryce's death.
The horrific and needless deaths ultimately led to Jones being called into the Shadow team for the next race in the United States.
Later that year, Jones would claim a stunning maiden win in Austria, the only win Shadow ever achieved, which set him up for future glory in the years to come.
Jones 'turns down' Ferrari after double tragedy
From 1979 to 1981, Jones was at the peak of his powers.
Driving for Williams, he won 11 grands prix in those three years and claimed the 1980 world championship.
But things could have been much different had a potential move to Ferrari eventuated.
Ferrari had met Jones, telling him he was their second option if the famed Italian team could not sign Mario Andretti.
Ferrari missed out on Andretti, who went on to win the 1978 championship with Lotus, but the Scuderia instead signed Canadian Gilles Villeneuve.
Jones went on to sign with Williams, in what proved to be a formidable partnership.
But, as happened so often in motorsport, tragedy struck.
Ferrari suffered a pair of horrors in 1982, a year after Jones first retired from F1.
The remains of Gilles Villeneuve's destroyed Ferrari chassis, after his fatal crash in Belgium in which he was thrown from the car. (Getty Images: LAT Images)
The remains of Gilles Villeneuve's destroyed Ferrari chassis, after his fatal crash in Belgium in which he was thrown from the car. (Getty Images: LAT Images)
Villeneuve died after a crash during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix, when he ran into the rear of a much slower car. Villeneuve's car launched into the air and he was thrown out as it crashed back to earth.
Didier Pironi suffered a similarly scary incident in Germany, suffering horrific leg fractures after running into the back of Alain Prost's unsighted Renault.
Jones claimed years later that Ferrari reached out to him to fill in for the final rounds of the 1982 season, but he took too long to reply and Ferrari chose another replacement.
F1 safety improves after Jones's retirement
In total, there were five drivers killed on F1 grand prix weekends during Jones's career.
That does not include two drivers killed in F1 tests, as well as Australian Brian McGuire, who was killed at Brands Hatch in England in 1977 while driving an F1 car.
It was a horrifying era for Formula 1, but one that did improve in the years following Jones's retirement in 1986.
F1 went several years without a fatal incident, until a horrific weekend at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix when Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger died in separate crashes.
There has been just one fatality in F1 since, when Jules Bianchi went off the circuit at Suzuka in 2014 and collided with a crane that was recovering the beached car of Adrian Sutil.
Several safety measures have been put in place, both on the race car and in how marshals and recovery vehicles enter the racing circuit.
The Halo, a curved, wishbone-shaped structure, now sits above the driver and has played its part in protecting drivers in several incidents, including Romain Grosjean's fiery 2020 crash in Bahrain, Lewis Hamilton being trapped underneath the wheel of Max Verstappen's Red Bull during the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, and Guanyu Zhou's frightening crash at Silverstone in 2022.