Given how much contact there seems to have been this year i don’t see how you can argue against the Halo,

And barely a scratch on any driver. F1 is safe enough.

F1 cars should look fast standing still, this makes them look all kinds of wrong.

I’m holding back until we see cars that were actually designed to integrate a Halo into the overall package. So far they’ve basically cobbled one together as a test mule and worked out how to bolt it to an existing car, but for 2018 I expect it’ll flow much better into the overall design.

Imagine the cars of the 80s if they were testing the current requirements for roll hoops and head protection – they’d have bolted on something that required minimal modification to their current car, so it would look way worse than what we ended up with. I’m hoping that the halo will be similar.

See also the 1997 F1 cars – the first year of the raised cockpit edges, they are not aesthetically pleasing at all.

Edit* 1996 by the looks of a google search

Williams found the loophole in the regs and made their 1996 car look good!…

…I can’t envisage a loophole that will make Halo look good.

What’s the Halo aiming to prevent? Another Surtees type incident?

Because I doubt it would have helped in Bianchi or Massa’s crashes. Maybe it would have protected the driver in a pile up like Grosjean going across Alonso’s car at Spa.

What’s the Halo aiming to prevent? Another Surtees type incident?

Yes

Because I doubt it would have helped in Bianchi or Massa’s crashes. Maybe it would have protected the driver in a pile up like Grosjean going across Alonso’s car at Spa.

There’s also the law of unintended consequences to consider, at some point (and it’s unlikely, but it will happen eventually) a ‘Massa’ type incident will occur again, except that this time the chunk of debris will deflect off of the underside of the halo, and into the drivers unprotected upper chest…

Halo designed to withstand a wheel impact at 150mph, wheels that are tethered to the car to prevent this happening!!

wheels that are tethered to the car to prevent this happening!!

When they crash, there’s debris flying everywhere.

The first one isn’t F1, the second there are no wheels flying about.

The point I guess is that a wheel is big and heavy, and 150mph is fast. It’s a worst case scenario rather than having been designed for that purpose specifically. That said, it’s not going to be as effective against small bits of rubbish.

I’m not quite sure which F1 accidents they think would have been mitigated by it.

I think if i was in this situation something above my head would be nice.

There is something above his head.

There is a roll hoop built into the chassis behind his head

There is something above his head.

There is a roll hoop built into the chassis behind his head yes, useful if he hits a flat surface, not so much if he rolls into another car or the corners of an armco.

The fact that Indycar (which is possibly more safety conscious than F1 and has definitely seen worse crashes) hasn’t bothered with this makes me think it’s possibly step too far, unless the end goal is no open top racing.

Not just Surtees jnr, but ex F1 driver Justin Wilson who sadly lost his life as a result of debris falling on his head. The FIA doesn’t just look at F1 accidents in isolation, they will review accident inquiries from all forms of motorsport.

Although I agree that the halo design is aesthetically very clumsy, I don’t agree that aesthetics should overrule driver safety, moreover none of us have had to drive an F1 car at 200mph and therefore are not qualified to comment on the relative merits of the screen or halo from a driver’s perspective. They had to go with the least worst option.

I also strongly suspect that the law of unintended consequences will apply here too, I daresay that teams in 2018 will integrate the halo into their aero package in a more refined fashion.

As someone more clever than me has pointed out, they couldn’t NOT introduce it, because it’s out there. If they didn’t and a driver was killed or seriously injured, the FIA could be sued for squillions

More clever? Cleverer? Dunno

As someone more clever than me has pointed out, they couldn’t NOT introduce it, because it’s out there. If they didn’t and a driver was killed or seriously injured, the FIA could be sued for squillions

Bollocks. The sport has rules. If people don’t like the rules or want something safer then they can do something else more challenging, like tiddly winks. Volenti non fit injuria.

Halos will sprout various aero-foils by 2018….you heard it here first 😉

Or the halo we be a foil itself. Halo flexibility complaints by rnd 3

As someone more clever than me has pointed out, they couldn’t NOT introduce it, because it’s out there. If they didn’t and a driver was killed or seriously injured, the FIA could be sued for squillions

And they will be sued just as quickly if a driver dies because he couldn’t be removed from the car quickly enough due to restricted access caused by the Halo.

And to take that statement to it’s logical conclusion the FIA already have, in World Sportcars, a closed wheel, closed cockpit formula that could be just as fast as F1 but a lot safer than an F1 car. Just remove a seat and stick the driver in the middle.

The Halo will kill F1 …… maybe it already has, I can’t be arsed anymore!

Just remove a seat and stick the driver in the middle.

Why bother with a driver, to take the logical conclusion further

If people don’t like the rules or want something safer then they can do something else more challenging,

In the early days, people opposed seatbelts on the grounds that it was safer to be thrown clear of the vehicle than to be trapped and burned alive. One of my dad’s mates was a truck driver who served in WW2 and he refused to wear seatbelts on those grounds. In the 1960s, motorsport deaths were commonplace, but then people such as Jackie Stewart started demanding safety standards. The death of Jim Clark and the near burning alive of Nikki Lauda were big motivations to improve safety. JS and NL weren’t cowards, they just didn’t see why things should be unnecessarily dangerous. More recently, the deaths of Henri Toivonen and Aryton Senna served as wake-up calls to improve things.

Some risks are part of the sport. For example, racing in the wet is risky, but it is part of being a race driver and it makes for very exciting races, so it’s a risk the sport needs to keep. Drivers being hit by debris does nothing for the sport, it’s just an unnecessary danger. Massa was extremely lucky to have not been killed by debris and there was nothing he could have done to avoid that, it wasn’t a matter of skill, just of bad luck. Yes, the Halo or a windshield don’t look like what we are used to. So what? I’d rather look at ugly cars than have drivers killed for no reason.

Massa was extremely lucky to have not been killed by debris and there was nothing he could have done to avoid that

And the Halo is unlikely to help in that situation anyway. Nor Bianchi’s. And it might impede a swift exit. Nor does it mean you are indestructible; deaths still occur in closed cockpit racing.

But it’s coming.

I would much prefer the screen solution as it would protect the drive from small debris and it would hark back to the 50’s when a few cars had them for aero reasons:

Modern safety with a nod to the past in one? Worth the effort of working out the kinks! Hopefully (and I really mean I hope to God!!) the Halo is a stop-gap until a better solution can be found.

Kubica to test the 2017 Renault car in Hungary…

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/kubica-drive-renault-hungaroring-test-933962/

I hope Jolyon has something else lined up for next year.

In the early days, people opposed seatbelts on the grounds that it was safer to be thrown clear of the vehicle than to be trapped and burned alive.

Years ago the Uncle of my (then) girlfriend went under a wagon in a Mini – it took the roof off the Mini and he was found in the rear footwell pretty much unscathed (he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and got thrown there in the initial impact.

I hope Jolyon has something else lined up for next year.

Or if the test goes well – he may need a summer job at his local ‘Spoons! 😀

Yep if I was JP I’d be super gluing myself to that seat right now

Any prospect of alonso and kubica both ending up at Renault next year?

Its going to be a toss up but hulkenberg is doing a good job. Only Kimi’s seat up at a top team.. I’m sure Sauber would welcome a world champion. Sainz is floating around but I think he will have Alonso’s ride in the mclaren should he leave. JP off to USA

Kimi is staying. Vettel doesn’t want a challenger stealing his thunder.

Well as F1 cars get uglier next year – Indycars get cooler! 2018 car revealed…

https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/news/gallery-check-out-the-2018-indycar-design-in-the-flesh-934206/#image-the-2018-chevrolet-indycar-13996264

Oooh! That is pretty easy on the eyes. I still can’t believe this Halo carry on mind.. Absolute eyesore and having that thing right in the centre of your vision can’t be nice

That Indy car looks awesome. F1 cars with Halo and all the aero crap will look a bit rubbish in comparison.

Also nickewen mentions I can’t believe the Halo won’t obscure vision, which is hardly ideal.

Indycar had to sort itself out, current cars are a bulbous mess. The new ones do look good though

That black pole sticking out the back of that Indycar can’t be very aero 😉

Can’t believe the fuss over the Halo, particularly in terms of the ‘look’. The cars still won’t be as ugly as when they had all the winglets 10 years or so ago. As long as the cars are fast, racing is close and drivers are safe, then that’s the most important thing IMHO.