Inadequate crash barriers and poor positioning of a chicane on the track could have been major contributing factors in Sunday’s crash, according to a former professional Formula 3 driver.

“From what I have seen of the footage, the placement of the chicane was a fundamental error as the exit seems to push a car at speed towards the grass,” Maltese-Australian driver Damien Digby told Times of Malta.

“Proper planning would have never put people in the direct line opposite to where an out-of-control car would inadvertently travel. It’s why you never see unprotected spectators on the exits of corners,” he said.

Footage of the crash shows the Porsche 918 supercar navigating a two-point chicane constructed out of crash barriers before appearing to clip the grass at the edge of the runway and spinning out of control into a crowd of onlookers.

Mr Digby, who won three Australian championships in an 11-year career, said the lack of effective crash barriers could have exacerbated the scale of the incident.

“Unsafe barriers, such as those I saw in the pictures around the carnage, act merely as projectiles that just strike more people in these types of accidents.”

Only a row of plastic crash barriers – not filled with water as is often the case – and metal crowd control barriers separated the large crowd from the track.

“Old fashioned hay bales, a safety barrier from the 1950s era, would have been much more effective but unfortunately were not present,” Mr Digby said.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.