Technical Can we talk about the Halo?

[Westy]

just because we can think of one problem with this approach shouldn't mean we don't move forward with it. We can't focus on hypotheticals but should instead focus on the hard reality. This design would have saved the lives of some of those we have lost over the past few years.

Think if we had the same approach to safety improvements after Senna's death. Obviously those improvements haven't saved everyone in our sport (Bianchi for one) however we know that they have saved many (Brundle comes to mind in his last race in Australia). This design is not perfect, however it does improve safety. Denying improvements in this area is a similar argument against gun control in the States "if you can't prevent every mass shooting then we might as well do nothing." That's narrowminded thinking to me.

 

[teabagyokel]

That's a straw man. The opposition is that destroying direct forward visibility could harm more than than is saved.

Make the front clear and there's little problem that I can see.

 

[Shogun]

Im all for driver safety but I dont think the halo is the answer. I would prefer a full canopy over the halo. The halo is just ugly and it looks weird.

 

[Lewywo4]

In Bianchi's case it wouldn't have helped at all, but with Wilson he may have stood a chance.

 

[cider_and_toast]

But Wilson was racing in Indy cars. Are they in a rush to mount what looks like a tribute to the G-String on their cars?

 

[Westy]

They were happy to put those fenders on the back and have some of the strangest aero parts I've seen in a while. I don't think they will turn their nose up at this.

 

[Kewee]

This may seem like a very hard attitude but I think they should leave it as it is. Formula One can be dangerous but risk and motorsport go hand in hand. It now has a very good safety record, not perfect, but does it need to be sanitised even further, it's an open wheel, open cockpit formula. These are not sports cars and the very essence of F1 would change if they enclose the cockpits. Considering how many miles are covered by open cockpit race cars each year and how many deaths and injuries have occurred during the last 10 or even 20 years do they need to do anything at all or just acknowledge the risk.

 

[Kewee]

They were happy to put those fenders on the back and have some of the strangest aero parts I've seen in a while. I don't think they will turn their nose up at this.

I doubt America will ever run semi closed cockpits, they will accept the risk. The aero packs they run were simply to reduce the chance of a car riding another's rear wheel, which is understandable considering they run in packs, much closer than F1. The number of deaths and serious injuries were taking a terrible toll, far worse than F1. The dangers involved in US racing are completely different to F1 and impossible to compare. No other form of racing runs over twenty cars nose to tail, two and sometimes three abreast at over 200mph on a 1.5 mile oval, the dangers are immense but to a large extent they accept the risk and love their racing.

 

[F1Brits_90]

I know beyonce is in favour, as she was chatting to kimi yesterday after he finished in stint, I can see your halo, You know you're my saving grace, You're everything I need and more It's written all over your face.

 

[Dario Resta]

It's a monstrosity. It wouldn't have saved Senna, Wilson or Jules Bianchi. It might have saved Henry Surtees.

 

[Slyboogy]

No, head protection isn't the answer. We've been racing in open cockpits for decades, why is this suddenly an issue now? There is no need for knee jerk reactions, this seems to be a common theme in F1 since 2009 on-wards.

How could anyone have prevented poor Henry Surtees accident, unless you are going to envelope the drivers head in metal, and by doing that in an impact you are still not necessarily helping if the structure gets crushed.

The incident was one in a million that injured Jules, similar to Surtees.

And yes it is pain now, but think of it this way, he has suffered enough in the time since while his condition was assessed. Let him be and let's hope the lessons learned about trackside gear are actually enforced with stringent rules and procedures.

Drivers know the risks and take them, I know from personal experience as I suffered a freak accident back when I used to race professionally.

Emotion is never the best response to start touting new rules.

 

[F1Brits_90]

seriously now after the beyonce "interview"

I think its a good idea for anything that stops fatalities because with bianchi & Wilson is creeping back in but problem its a lot more bulky than we expected & the worry I have is the that the straight ahead view is quite compromised & that if your slipstreaming under DRS you could lose the car in front may cause an mark webber/valencia accident that if in a split second driver behind goes for overtake but driver in front defends inside line. also the sainz crash in Russia would've made it more difficult extraction because the sides are blocked

 

[Westy]

Dario Resta - I can't agree on Wilsons crash. The Halo could have been the thing that diverted the nose cone before it hit his head.

Slyboogy - I also agree that knee jerk reactions aren't the best way to go about it. However there have been tests and some serious thought put into these designs.

unless you are going to envelope the drivers head in metal.

Like a helmet? I wonder if people made the same argument when metal helmets were introduced? Or even when full face helmets were introduced? I had a little chuckle at that one. Perez said something similar the other day about how times are changing.

I know that if I were a driver I'd want to be as safe as possible. It will never be 100% safe, but I'd like the sport to be as close to it as possible. If all the drivers were against it I would support them. But some of them are against it.

Leaving it off because it looks silly isn't the right argument. Leaving driver safety up to the drivers also isn't the right way to go about it. Back before safety features were really implemented the organizers suggested that if a driver wanted to be safe he should drive slower. Racers don't do slower on purpose.

Times are changing. Just because we bring the halo in now doesn't mean it will have to be the only solution and never improved upon. Let's get it on there and be a little safer as we look for a better solution.

 

[Slyboogy]

Westy A halo is likely to cause more hazards than having nothing actually there, it may deflect debris at times, but what if a driver goes head-on into a tyre wall like we've seen on many occasions? What if the car is on fire and the halo becomes more of an obstruction after a crash resulting the driver being trapped in the car for longer?

It's not as if Master Chief is going to come along and save the day.

 

[Westy]

Slyboogy - we should definitely be finding Spartan II marshals! Having Master Chief handy would be awesome.

You are right on it also being a hinderance. It's a tough call to make. I just don't want it poo-pooed right out of the gate. It may be rushed out without adequate testing which is not a good idea. Hopefully someone in the FIA will find some common sense and plan accordingly.

 

[Kewee]

Westy ..... Someone in the FIA with common sense.

 

[Bill Boddy]

You want it 100% safe? There is a way. google google car.

Whoops, 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999%s safe if there are buses around.

 

[teabagyokel]

You can practice it all you like, but you've not tested it properly until a driver has crashed at 200mph and is half-buried in a tyre wall like Lucho Burti in 2001.

Did being open cockpit save his life? Possibly. This is the problem we have - we can all quote the ones that failed but no-one knows how many are saved.

A halo in F1 wouldn't have saved Wilson, who raced in IRL.

The only driver fatality in F1 for 22 years was Jules Bianchi at Suzuka - an incident, by the way, where he hit a JCB at 130mph and died from brain injuries suffered in deceleration. In other words, all of the safety equipment (from helmet to survival cell etc.) perfectly physically protected him.

It's not a reaction to Surtees' death, because that was 7 years ago.

The reason we should allow ourselves scepticism over fixing safety in F1 is because it broadly ain't broke.

 

[FB]

I think I might have mentioned before that banning agricultural equipment from track side during the race would be an eminently more sensible safety idea than these halo things.

 

[Kewee]

Couldn't agree more FB. No one ever accepted responsibility for allowing a massive piece of recovery equipment out from behind the armco while the cars were on a wet track with no safety car. It was an issue that was never addressed adequately in my opinion and as far as I know there's still a chance the same tragedy could be repeated. On a wet track an actual safety car should be a must before recovery equipment is allowed anywhere near the track.