F1 News
Date: 22/July/2011
F1 cars have changed enormously since the inaugural 1950 grand prix season, but one thing they've always had in common is an open cockpit.
That could change in the near future, with a canopy - similar to that used on fighter jets - one of three possible solutions under consideration to lower the risk of debris striking a driver's head.
"This is something that’s been under discussion for a few Technical Working Group meetings now," confirmed Renault's James Allison. "We’re trying to look after the driver’s head, both from large scale things like tyres and also small scale things like the very unfortunate incident that Felipe [Massa] suffered.
"There are a few suggestions around: one of them was looking into a fully enclosed canopy. Another one was looking into a visor-type [screen], where it’s still open above the driver’s head but he has a visor in front of him.
"And then there is a third type of proposal as well, where there isn’t a see-through windscreen at all but there is like a roll [bar] structure in front of the driver that would anyway deflect any big objects.
"All those things are still in fairly early discussion and… there are a lot of questions to answer before we can bring it to a practical solution."
Those questions include "egress [exit] in the event of an accident and, in the case of a canopy or visor, keeping it clean when it might get covered in oil.
"Each of the proposed solutions has advantages and disadvantages and we need to do the basic research to find out what is the best way forward."
Mercedes boss Norbert Haug added that any eventual cockpit solution should become standard not just in F1, but all single-seater championships.
"I think that if this makes sense for Formula One it needs to be applied to all formula: the junior drivers, everybody and I think we should carefully think that idea through," said the German.
No comments:
Post a Comment