Lots of comparisons to F-1 with respect to hard decks. What we have yet to acknowledge is the cars are safer. The wide skirts on tracks don't prevent the cars from hitting walls. Watch Robert Kubitsa's crash in Montreal. The safety barriers were not in play he was injured pretty bad but he lived to drive again. We have made great improvements in sailplane performance but not crash surviveability. People still crash modern passenger cars and die but at a lower rate then trundling a vintage 50's cat into the same object as a modern entry level Toyota. Rules have made sailplane racing safer but people still die and are going to die as long as we fly. We cannot legislate common sense. Even with rules people still crash cars. A glider is dangerous as soon as it is pulled to the flight line just as a car is dangerous as soon as we start the engine. Cars are crashed with significantly more energy then gliders but the crashes are more survivable. Rather than worrying about new L/D, better self launch, electronic devices and rules, pilots should demand manufacturers figure out how to build ships to survive a crash with greater regularity.