I’m about to give an unpopular opinion I know but here’s why we need to suck it up
and embrace the Halo.
A quick background for the uninitiated: Formula 1 and its sibling series in open-cockpit racing
have worked tirelessly (ish) over the last few decades to make their sport safer.
Safer for the drivers, safer for the spectators and safer for the team members and track officials.
This makes sense.
A few examples of improvements made in the name of safety include: moving the feet into
the safety cell, tethering the tyres, raising the cockpit sidewalls and mandating the use
of the helmet-brace known as the HANS device.
We’ll touch on the HANS later.
Over the last decade several serious incidents (four immediately come to find, with three
of them fatal) have reminded us that for all the protection we’ve given the drivers,
we’ve still left their heads completely exposed.
I’m no biologist, but I’ve done my research and it turns out the head is a very important
part of the body, so exploring ways to protect the head seems like a pretty good idea to
me.
It’s actually amazing how slow progress in this area has been.
Felipe Massa was hit in the face by a small spring in 2009 and we all breathed a sigh
of relief when he not only survived but was able to return to racing again the following
year.
Debate still rumbles on over whether the accident prevented him from ever reaching his peak
performance again.
Since then, 18 year old F2 driver Henry Surtees was killed when his head was struck by a tyre,
Justin Wilson was killed when his head was struck by debris in an IndyCar race and Jules
Bianchi died from injuries sustained when he crashed into a trackside crane.
Only now in 2017, three years after Bianchi’s crash, have F1 finally mandated a head-protection
structure.
And this comes in the form of the Halo.
Let’s be honest right out of the gate here.
People HATE the Halo.
They don’t hate what it’s trying to do (at least for the most part – we’ll get
back to that), they mostly hate how it looks and that it’s part of a growing trend of
proactive and reactive decisions made by the powers that are shaping the sport away from
its very essence.
Is F1 still F1 anymore?
That’s a bigger question for another video.
But the Halo?
What is it?
Essentially, it’s a roll cage: a block of sturdy scaffolding designed to extend the
protected survival space around the driver to include the head, though designed not for
impact, but to head off the majority of debris.
It’s… not pretty.
It’s basically a big old hoop over the driver’s head with a straight bar right in front of
the driver’s head.
It doesn’t blend in with the rest of the car or even seem to match its design aesthetic
in any way.
It’s, as they say, a band-aid.
It’s a means to an end.
Other designs were proposed and tested.
The Aeroscreen and the Shield were oversized plexiglass windscreens designed to deflect
debris away from the drivers’ heads while more subtly blending into the design and flow
of the rest of the car.
So why have we been forced to adopt the Halo?
Well because it works and it’s ready.
That’s basically it.
The screen-based solutions we’re as effective in debris testing and were reportedly causing
sickness due to vibrations under use.
They weren’t ready to go.
The Halo was.
But wait, I hear you say, How is the Halo ready?
You said yourself: it’s ugly and doesn’t fit the car properly at all.
Why don’t we wait and get the engineers to figure out a way of either fixing the aeroscreen
problems of design a more attractive Halo that F1 deserves?
There are further arguments too – though I’m not sure if these are just ‘projections’
launched from the fact that the Halo is so ugly.
These include the fact that: 1) F1 Drivers should be gladiators, warriors,
battling against the very dangers of speed as they race around the track.
2) It will slow down the evacuation time for a driver.
Currently the driver has to provably be able to evacuate the car fully in five seconds
and the Halo clearly gets in the way.
3) If the car rolls over, the driver might get trapped in the cockpit by the Halo, which
is dangerous.
I said these arguments are projections because I’m not sure we’d have these arguments
if a ‘pretty’ solution had been found.
I also have an answer for all of them.
Arguments two and three are the easiest to break down, even though they are the most
sensible.
Both of these arguments are about the driver being able to evacuate the car quickly and
the historical urgency around this point is related to fire.
See, in the past, if a car was in a heavy accident, the fuel tank could rupture and
the car could quickly be consumed in flames.
If a driver was trapped in the car, they could easily asphyxiate so it was vitally important
to get them out as soon as possible.
Nowadays, though, the threat of fuel fire is minimal.
After an accident, the safest place for a driver to be is normally inside the car and
they should leave the cockpit only when it is safe to do so.
We’ve not seen fuel fires in a long time and we’ve rarely seen cars roll in such
a way that they trap the driver.
So argument 1 then.
Drivers are gladiators.
And, OK, there’s a lot tied up in this.
We especially hear this argument from drivers and ex-racing drivers themselves, which is
interesting if you think about it.
But driving these extremely fast cars is exhilarating – your job is to work at speeds and forces
greater than a rollercoaster, with your heart rate soaring and your adrenaline pumping.
Of course you feel like a gladiator.
Of course you feel like you’re slapping death in the face with every lap taken in
anger.
What a rush.
So, at first blush, I can understand why drivers say “forget all these safety features, just
strap me to the engine and let’s go!
I’m a road warrior!”
Alright.
But let’s take a step back and think about what you’re actually saying, gladiatorial
driver.
If you’re speaking up against a proven safety device, you’re not just speaking on behalf
of yourself.
You’re including all your colleagues and competitors as well.
You’re saying, “I don’t think my fellow racer , teenager Lance Stroll, deserves to
have his head protected when doing his job.
I’m not just willing to take the risk for myself, but I’m want to force everyone else
to take the risk too.”
Because you can’t opt in or out of the Halo.
Everyone has to do it.
If you could opt out, everyone would have to because it’s such a pain in the arse
to design a car around, and it adds weight to the car.
It’s a performance deficit so it has to be mandated if anyone is going to have it.
And, yes, I am trying to shame the drivers who have spoken against it.
No one should HAVE to dice with death to be a racing driver.
The qualifications for competing for the world championship shouldn’t have to be “be
able to drive really fast”, “work well with your racing engineer on setup” and
“not care if you get super injured”.
No one should have to absorb that kind of risk to do their job and it’s a ridiculous
case of machismo to expect that.
Imagine if the drivers or teams kicked up such a fuss that the Halo was abandoned for
2018.
Imagine then, that during the season a young driver was smacked in the face with debris
and killed.
Or, not killed, but knocked into a coma.
Or severely brain damaged for life.
Or blinded.
Imagine being someone who stood up against the Halo’s introduction then, knowing it
worked, knowing it would have preventing a terrible injury.
Could you look yourself in the eye?
Was it worth it, to feel like a gladiator?
The FIA most certainly can’t take that risk.
They’ve got a working system in their hands and they have no choice but to force it onto
the cars.
Yes it could look better and yes it WILL look better.
Now it’s mandatory, I suspect people will come up with designs for future season that
suit the cars and integrate better.
The HANS devices used to be bulky, ugly things when they were first mandated but now I bet
you don’t even notice them.
Maybe they’ll get that aeroscreen working, maybe a closed cockpit is inevitable.
Whatever happens, the FIA could not in good conscience (or legal sensibility) keep the
Halo away.
And look.
Wings are weird.
So is the roll structure, really.
Non weird cars are smooth.
But we get used to all these bits and bobs that hang off the car.
And we’ll get use to this.
And lives may be saved along the way.
I’d stick a Halo on the cars of Massa, Wilson, Bianchi and Surtees, wouldn’t you?
I hope you didn’t all unsubscribe at that controversial point!
Wait til a future video when I tell you how great the hybrid engine is and how going back
to V8s is a terrible idea!
Woooo!
I’m aiming to come back more regularly, but these videos take time and energy and
I have literally no money so I’m considering setting up a Patreon to make this more possible.
And yes I’ll do more “how does this work?” type videos as well as opinion videos and
reflections.
I want to do more with this channel!