Halo to Safety
Well, to begin with.. it's Always been a dream to one day drive the latest Formula 1 Race car.
A Sport I've been following less passionately than my Dad since it's inception to television broadcasting.
My oldest-faintest memory of Formula 1 goes back to when Michael Schumacher won his 1st Championship in 1994, when he raced for Benetton before Ferrari.
Me? i was only a year old.
Talk about astrological-star connection ; I was born on the same date as The 1st ever Formula 1 World Champion - Giuseppe Farina.
Not to Brag, but I've ALSO been a little formally trained on Go-Kart's & Formula 3's by One of India's Best car racing coaches - Rayomand Banajee - a well know racing veteran - who during his peak at one point, tested with a certain Daniel Ricciardo for Formula BMW.
While Ricciardo was taking his 1st steps with the Red Bull racing team.
Basically Motor sport Racing is By Default a dominating part of my genome.. & I Love it !
Since then till date the sport has seen through et been through several stages of evolution.. revolutions.. diversions.. modifications.. you name it.
"Maybe" for the good *i think*, rather to survive & evolve at same time.
So This year when the cars line up on the grid in
Melbourne, Australia, on March 25th - To KICK START the 2018 season ; they will share one feature that is
totally new to the sport : a clunky looking loop of metal and carbon fiber,
directly in the drivers’ eye line.
"Maybe" for the good *i think*, rather to survive & evolve at same time.
This is the "HALO," a T-shaped
safety cage designed to protect the driver’s head in crashes, to protect them from deflecting flying objects, like a wheel flung loose from a smash up ahead.
A sort of threat which is one of the few remaining safety risks in F1 that Hadn't been engineered away, and killed Henry Surtees in Formula Two racing in 2009,
and Justin Wilson in an IndyCar race in 2015.
In 2009, Formula 1 driver Filipe Massa too was knocked unconscious by a bolt that flew off another car.
Starting this season, it's a must-have, and with everything else, the halo must withstand a force of over 12 tons in static tests, which means all the manufacturers have had to add extra support to their cars. "You’ve got to design your chassis to take these loads." says McLaren chief technical officer, Tim Goss.
Despite being built from lightweight titanium, the halo weighs about 30 pounds (7 kgs), a significant chunk in a sport where every ounce counts.
Pierre Gasly completed his first full day of running in the new Toro Rosso-Honda at Barcelona on Tuesday.
Asked if he had any
issues with the now mandatory cockpit protection device, he replied: "I
don't like it, it's a big mess to get in the car and get out.
"I think my suit
is already broken, we will have to ask [racesuit provider] AlpineStars for many
suits this year.
"Already, it's
only the first day and I have many holes on the back.
"You need to be a
lot backwards, to slide in the car. It's actually quite weird.
"And with all the
winglets you have on the halo, you cannot pull [yourself out], to get out you
cannot really touch it.
"It's quite weird
conditions, but nothing really important. I just prefer the old cars."
"To drive with it,
it doesn't make a big difference," he said.
"In terms of
visibility, it's the same.
"Of course you see
something on top of you, which is a bit weird, but when you start to drive you
focus, you're just paying attention to your driving and you don't really see
it.
"But to get in the
car and get out is quite a big challenge."
“I think we need to look after the driver’s safety, but what we have implemented is aesthetically not appealing and we need to come up with a solution that simply looks better.”
Four-time world champion Lewis Hamilton was less stinging in his criticism of the halo’s new look, but warned the extra weight of the device, designed to be able to resist the weight of a Double-Decker bus, could lead to less exciting racing.
Implemented
to help protect drivers’ heads in a variety of accident scenarios, the halo is
the most visual difference on the new cars compared to last year’s designs. But
what’s it like driving with the new device?
“It
took a little bit of time to get used to it but its ok."
“I don’t think it’s a massive difference with
the weight. How much has the halo weight added? Maybe six to seven kilos?“Honestly it’s not massive because we are used to driving with different weights. We start the race with 100 kilos [of fuel] and at the end of the race it’s zero, nearly, so it’s a massive difference. Plus, minus ten kilos it’s not a big difference.
“Of course, we would prefer the weight to be lower down [on the chassis] - it’s always better for the car.
says Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull Racing team.
On the contrary Toto Wolf ; executive director of Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team complained about the weight of the new device.
“I’m not impressed with the whole thing and if you give me a chainsaw I would take it off,”
While Valtari Bottas added that he practiced getting out of the car with the HALO ON maybe three times before the FIA test -passing it on the first attempt.
"They gave us a few seconds more to get out of the car and that’s more or less how it is. I think it takes maybe three or four seconds more to get out of the car. To get in, it’s a bit more tricky but it’s OK.”
For me having tried it on Simulators it isn't a Problem AT ALL once you're used to it.
Except for the part where maybe sometimes as a driver you might find yourself struggling a tiny bit to get a clear straight view of the farthest point ahead, but apart from that you're mostly focusing on your apexes on the turns.
I Personally would not be surprised if someone *hinting @ Ferrari* even tries to make an airfoil shape out it & then tries to make it create More downforce.
(That's when the air pushes the car down, planting it more firmly on the ground, and helping with stability.)
Thank you for reading
BLOG #15 :)
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