Halo's; just when you thought it was safe

[Derek Smith]

Evangelion said:

Derek Smith said:

You don't think aesthetics matter?

I think aesthetics does matter - but only to the spectator. Anyway it disappeared from F1 forever, the day some idiot decided to hide the cars under wings and adverts.

I do hate the halo ... but have to concede that its effect on the look of the cars is minimal.

I think some of the paint schemes on F1 cars add to the spectacle. The black and gold Lotus cars were a sight to behold despite being an advert. Martini colours - Brabham again from me, but they were the business. I think wings and aerodynamics need not necessarily detract from the beauty of an F1 car, although the current front wings are farcical, at least to my eyes.

I reckon the Lotus 21 was stunning, but times change.

I'll get used to the halo, but not if it is yellow.

[craigjm]

The halo being yellow is farsical and should be put to bed immediately.

Saying that it shouldn't be there because it may only help in certain situations is a faulty assertion unless you were involved in the design and testing of the device. There are plenty of situations where safety devices that have been stated as helping in every kind of crash actually cause more harm than good. Being belted into a burning car is only one example of that. Of course my statement that we may as well remove all the others was tongue in cheek.

We should never judge a safety device on its looks. It should be judged when it has been shown to save or take a life.

[Rich_W]

Didn't know where to stick these futurist cars but I still think a Canopy would have been nicer than the HALO











How cool do these look!

More at
http://antoniopagliadesign.blogspot.co.uk/

[anonymous-user]

Those renders look fantastic to my eyes. If the real cars looked like that, I would rather the canopy than the halo. I know canopies have issues with rapid egress, but they certainly look nicer and would offer more protection than the silly halo.

[8V085]

These renders look cool, almost as cool as actual 2018 Indy spec cars.

[768]

Rich_W said:

That does look so much better, although I'd fear with any impact on visibility Vettel would find even more cars to crash into.

Surely a safety device is better if it's performance is consistent? The potential for the Halo to make some accidents worse depending on the size, shape and directional of travel of a projectile just screams bad design to me. You can refine the effectiveness of a canopy, what do you do with Halo other than add more bars?

[HTP99]

Rich_W said:

Didn't know where to stick these futurist cars but I still think a Canopy would have been nicer than the HALO

That looks awesome, I love the Rothmans livery on the Williams.

[anonymous-user]

There is no point generating all these pretty pictures when the reality of the design is you can't drive the thing.

[turbomoped]

I was wondering if anyone in F1 ever built a car based on a nice drawing and could only think of one of those slow Prost's with nice little louvre things on the sidepods.
As far as my grasp of F1 goes these are nice designs if you want to die a horrible quick death. Only works if you have a door like in a normal car.

[HustleRussell]

The proportions of those futuristic 'F1' renders would never work in a million years- the top of the rollover structure looks to be only a few inches higher than the top of the driver's head. The inclination of the aeroscreen means the driver will be looking through thick curved polycarbonate stuff at a shallow angle which will be a visability nightmare in most conditions, until it gets dirty and fogs up at which point it'll be impossible in all conditions. The driver's impression of where the front of the car is and the proximity of other cars would be worse than ever. I doubt the aero friendly slippery canopy design lends itself to close racing at all. That's before driver extraction is considered.

Subjective I know but I think the new indycar is ugly as ever.

[thegreenhell]

Rich_W said:

Are these designed specifically for Alex Zanardi? Surely nobody with legs would fit.

[Evangelion]

I too find the new Indycars ugly but let's be honest, compared to a current F1 it's like parking a supermodel next to Anne Widdecombe.

I don't know why people are complaining about the halo, there's no way on earth you could make the cars look worse so it's less than a drop in the ocean.

[corozin]

Perhaps they should give M. Todt a Maillot Jeaune so that on th odd occasion when he bothers to turn up at a Grand Prix these days he will be easily identifiable, so that people can punch him.

[F1GTRUeno]

craigjm said:

Of course but that is not what you asked. You asked me if aesthetics were important so my comparison was with and without. I suspect F1 will never get to the point. Shame

From an engineering standpoint aesthetics are not important.

To a fan they're incredibly important. We remember good looking cars, liveries and helmets and they link us to key moments that made us fans.

It's the same with the sound. Engineering wise I suspect they couldn't give a damn but even the drivers want V12's back. Watching any video of a screaming V10 or V12 is painful when you consider how awful they sound now...and look now...

[MartG]

Seems some teams are already experimenting to gain an aero advantage from the halo

[Rich_W]

MartG said:

Seems some teams are already experimenting to gain an aero advantage from the halo

I predict these will last half a season. There will be "an incident" where they are proven to be a problem safety wise. And they will be binned forever


Gut is that something will get wedged in between the body and the Halo. Or that a car will upturn and Driver can't get out when if it wasn't fitted he would be able to.

Hopefully no one will be injured though

[anonymous-user]

Its certainly going to change the load path into the tub when a car goes upside down.

I think its seriously dodgy. I hope no driver has his career ended due to vertigo issues from the vision impact.

Onboard camera shots are going to change a lot, because the current position used will just show the halo bars.

[ukaskew]

jsf said:

Onboard camera shots are going to change a lot, because the current position used will just show the halo bars.

If they can safely install them in the halo without compromising the integrity of that particular structure we could have an incredible ‘drivers eye’ view.

[768]

So incredible even the drivers won't be able to have such a good view.

[Sk00p]

768 said:

So incredible even the drivers won't be able to have such a good view.

Hook it up to VR Goggles..