Closed cockpits (Render)

An artist’s rendering of what a Formula One car might look like with a closed cockpit.

Rarely has a safety issue so divided people within a sporting series as the current debate about whether Formula One cars should have closed cockpits.

In a style of auto racing in which the driver’s head has always been visible, the subject is the latest, and perhaps last, area of driver safety that has met with resistance. It has raised questions like few other safety issues — except perhaps the adoption of seatbelts in the late 1950s.

The debate started in earnest after two drivers died from head injuries over the summer, one in Formula One and the other in the IndyCar series. The French Formula One driver Jules Bianchi, 25, died nine months after suffering severe head injuries when his car struck a crane at the Japanese Grand Prix. Justin Wilson, 37, a former Formula One driver from Britain, died a day after he was hit in the head by the nose of another car in an accident in the United States in August.

With all the safety progress made on cars and track design and with body gear such as a device that holds a driver’s head and neck secure from sudden lateral forces in an accident, the open cockpit, which leaves the head exposed, remains the biggest threat to the lives of drivers.

In one of the lower series in 2009, Henry Surtees, 18, the son of the former Formula One world champion John Surtees, died when he was struck in the head by a wheel that had come loose from another car. In IndyCar in 2011, Dan Wheldon was killed when he crashed and his head hit a fence pole.

The last driver to die in Formula One before Bianchi was Ayrton Senna, who was killed in an accident at the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994. In the crash, a piece of Senna’s front wheel suspension pierced his helmet and entered his skull. After his death, Formula One raised the cockpit in cars to protect a driver’s head.

Now, however, there is a more radical suggestion: use a canopy over the driver, like in a fighter jet. But this idea has had mixed reviews.

Full article here.

So what do we think?

I like the artist's render but do we think this could happen any time soon?

I just happen to have done an essay on this for uni

I reckon that cockpit canopies are extremely unlikely to feature on F1 cars, for a number of reasons..
- The obvious concerns about driver extraction. No solution for fast/easy removal of a canopy when upside-down/undernath another car seems forthcoming.
- The curvature of the canopy causes visual distortion. Not great when wheel-to-wheel at 200mph! (Planes get away with this due to them generally being greater distances away from other objects)
- The tests that the FIA conducted showed that the canopy would deflect debris high into the air - and possibly into spectators.
- Rules regarding car design would need a major shakeup to accompany canopies. Air conditioning and windscreen wipers would surely have to be incorporated, to name a couple of examples.

In short, a canopy would be a pain to incorporate into the car design and is likely to present as many, if not more, hazards than just leaving the head exposed.
A 'halo' design is much more likely - it might not give all-round protection like a canopy, but most of the issues described above would be avoided.

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/2015 02:50PM by smoglessbutton4.

If it's deemed to be the safest option then I would have no issue. They don't look great, but then neither does Mercedes' proposal.

It's only a matter of time before F1 becomes a closed cockpit sport. Like so many other accidents in F1's past, let's not wait until someone is killed or seriously injured before changes are implemented, so for me, do the research and mandate the best solution. We won't all like it, but it's better than crossing your fingers.

smoglessbutton4 Wrote:
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> I just happen to have done an essay on this for
> uni

Good summary of the issues! I agree that I hope they properly think it through and don't rush into any decisions - the solution could easily make things worse.

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X (@ed24f1)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/2015 01:36PM by SchueyFan.

Seriously, if we get closed cockpits, after 15 years of watching every race, that is the end of F1 for me.

As has been pointed out by several experts, it does not help!

The driver extraction issues alone, when you don't have the car utilities available with current endurance racers, makes it a endeavour in utter folly when it comes to safety. If you ameliorate that with cockpit features, you no longer have a single seat formula race car. Doors do not belong on a formula racer. It is as simple as that.

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/29/2015 11:44PM by Morbid.

Closed cockpits should be considered for Indycar first and foremost because their drivers are far more likely to have to drive through airborne debris than drivers racing in F1 and therefore more likely to be struck on the head. This is because of the lack of runoff areas and greater speeds inherent in oval racing.

A driver racing in F1 will usually have enough time to react and have some form of runoff area which they can go onto if necessary to avoid debris from an accident but a driver racing on an oval in Indycar has much less time to react because of the speeds involved and less space at their disposal to avoid debris.

Way better than "halo-ring":



Kimi, so, Massa Fernando Sebastian is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?

robracer écrivait:
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> [...]
> A driver racing in F1 will usually have enough
> time to react and have some form of runoff area
> which they can go onto if necessary to avoid
> debris from an accident [...]

3 counter-examples of that :
1- Massa/Barichello - Hungaroring 2009 : a loose spring hits Massa's helmet.
2- Alonso/Grosjean - Spa 2012 : Grosjean's Lotus fly over Alonso's Ferrari at less than 30 cm of Alonso's head.
3- Alonso/Raikkonen - RedBull Ring 2015 : same as above but with Raikkonen flying over Alonso.

Fortunately there were not much harm in those events, except for Massa, who did recover from it.

I would add a fourth one that happened a long time ago, which was a bit peculiar and not fortunate at all :
4- Pryce/marschall - Kyalami 1977 : two marschalls crossed the track lane with a fire extinguisher just in front of Tom Pryce's Shadow. The driver couldn't avoid one of them and was hit on the face by the fire extinguisher. Both of them died.


On another note, I posted this picture in another thread but I think it would be better placed in this one :

Closed cockpit by Vaillante

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Surely the Red Bull one will hinder the sight of a driver more than the Mercedes one. Yes it looks much better, but there's two pillars to the left and right (like a thinner version of the frame in a car) rather than a single central one which will certainly never get in the way.

You're also getting to the stage where surely you'll need windscreen wipers, though that would also be the case with the perspex screen planned for the halo at a later date.

In recent history there was also Coulthard flying over Wurz in Melbourne. Sure they might not be effective 100% of the time, but (I'll say it again) if it can reduce the risk of injury or death just once, then they're worth it.

EricMoinet Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> robracer écrivait:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > [...]
> > A driver racing in F1 will usually have enough
> > time to react and have some form of runoff area
> > which they can go onto if necessary to avoid
> > debris from an accident [...]
>
> 3 counter-examples of that :
> 1- Massa/Barichello - Hungaroring 2009 : a loose
> spring hits Massa's helmet.
> 2- Alonso/Grosjean - Spa 2012 : Grosjean's Lotus
> fly over Alonso's Ferrari at less than 30 cm of
> Alonso's head.
> 3- Alonso/Raikkonen - RedBull Ring 2015 : same as
> above but with Raikkonen flying over Alonso.
>
> Fortunately there were not much harm in those
> events, except for Massa, who did recover from it.


Alonso/Grosjean at Spa and Alonso/Raikkonen at Red Bull Ring are different accidents to what I was talking about so are not valid arguments against my comment. But whilst nobody was harmed in them, they were serious crashes which in my opinion could have been made worse if the cars had a full canopy similar to the image in the first post of this thread because I think they may be potential for the driver (Alonso in both of these examples) to be trapped in the car if the canopy gets damaged from the impact.

The type of accident that I was talking about before, the type that occured with Massa and Surtees in 2009 and with Wilson in 2015, is more likely to occur in Indycar because of the different aspects of racing on an oval circuit compared to a non-oval circuit, oval circuits have less runoff areas and greater speeds. That is why I believe that closed cockpits should be considered for Indycar before F1. I'm not saying that F1 should not look at extra cockpit protection for the future, just that Indycar is in more need of it and should have the greater priority in this case.

That wasn't arguments against your comment I was just giving examples of situations where the drivers had no way to avoid the collision, or debris, to point out that no system, should it be canopy, closed cockpit or anything else, would be 100% safe. There will be always at some point something different that no one had been thinking of.

If I were to argue I would say that Massa's and Wilson's accidents were pretty similar (I don't know about Surtees, never seen it) and none of them had enough time to protect themselves, should be F1 or Indycar the outcome was the same except that Massa was fortunate enough to survive.

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Actual design from Red Bull:



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And sad reality:

Quote

The FIA has confirmed the halo cockpit protection device is on the right path to be adapted and made mandatory for the 2017 Formula One season.

[readmotorsport.com]

Kimi, so, Massa Fernando Sebastian is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?