Details have emerged that Red Bull Racing plan to block the introduction of the Halo safety system for 2017.
Following a naming convention usually reserved for iPods and iPhones, Red Bull’s reserve driver Pierre Gasly trialled the new and improved ‘Halo 2’ at yesterday’s Silverstone test.
Slight modifications to the original Halo design, the product of a working group including members of both the Ferrari and Mercedes teams, sees a slimmer bar that sits higher and includes plans to construct the new model from lighter titanium.
“Personally I am not a big fan of the Halo,” Christian Horner told Motorsport.com. “I think it is an inelegant solution to the problem it is trying to deal with.
“I certainly wouldn’t vote in favour at the moment.”
Even Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel was unconvinced.
“You lose quite a bit [of visibility] on top of you,” he said. “We just need to make sure we introduce something that is safer in all circumstances, and we don’t make any compromises.”
A unanimous vote from the teams would be required for the Halo to be introduced, otherwise FIA would need to insist that introducing the apparatus is required to ensure driver safety (which, if you think about it, is the device’s raison d’être).
It may well be sour grapes on the part of Red Bull, who were working on a competing technology, the so-called Aeroscreen, that shielded the drivers from tyres and other objects with improved visibility.
Internal tests were impressive, with video released by Red Bull showing an Aeroshield deflecting a Formula One tyre that was launched at speeds exceeding 200 kph directly at a driver’s head.
The Aeroscreen static tests. First up, the #F1 wheel at a speed of 225kph. #RussianGPhttps://t.co/o1aKjmizLV
— Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) April 29, 2016
The public got their first true glimpse of the Aeroscreen on-track at the Russian Grand Prix in May. Less than a month later however, it was shelved after FIA conducted a series of tests and found that it lacked in “overall robustness” and risked coming into contact with a driver’s head in the case of a heavy collision.
As early as the Australian Grand Prix FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting said that the Aeroscreen was “considerably further behind in development” and raised doubts over whether it could be implemented by 2017, unlike the Halo.
Extraction test were conducted at the Austrian and British Grands Prix to help medical crews understand what how the Halo limits their access drivers when in their car.
It’s tragically apparent that Formula One needs to continue to improve safety standards, of the Halo and Aeroscreens it seems the former is more adaptable and appropriate in the short term.
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