'Halo' Proves Worth in Opening Lap Crash at Spa

[Filip Carlén]

Yes, but then again, in a similar accident in the future it might save a life for sure. Not saying that it will, but I'm saying that it might.

And for me, racing isn't about a risk of life and death, it's about fights, the risk of losing out and giving it all you got to win. Risks are needed in racing, that what makes it fun, but for me, the risk does not have to be a risk of death. Maybe I'm too young (21) to understand since for all of my life, death accident hasn't been a big part of racing. Or you too old to understand my point of view where I enjoy racing to the fullest without deadly risks. I don't know, but it's apparent that we view this differently, and I respect all of your points.

That's about what I got to say about this, so unless someone finds some new evidence proving something, both me wrong or right, I'm gonna go on now and enjoy my evening. Have nice evening guys

 

[el_mattpro]

@Filip Carlén @JayOTT Problem SOLVED.
That was fast...

Alonso's front (right) wheel hits the FRONT of Leclerc's Halo, that means that it hit ahead Leclerc's hands

 

[Terry Rock]

Leclerc car was on the outside turning right when Alonso's car got launched over it.
It's not 'rocket science' to see what the trajectory would be.
Regardless of which part struck the Halo, those marks and that damage did not happen in a vacuum.
Christ!...get a clue already.
Edit:
Having now seen the slo-mo video from the post above, he was indeed even more lucky than first thought.
Alonso's car...without the benefit of traction on a paved surface, is 'flying' backward at a faster rate of speed than Leclerc's who at that point would still be braking.
The wheel contacts the halo at a forward point which deflects the car upward and away.
Now Imagine where the wheel would have ended up IF the halo was not there.
It would have been right against his helmet.

 

[Filip Carlén]

@Filip Carlén @JayOTT Problem SOLVED.
That was fast...

Alonso's front (right) wheel hits the FRONT of Leclerc's Halo, that means that it hit ahead Leclerc's hands

Yea, probably. But without the halo, we would be centimeters from a death (broken neck for sure if it would have hit). So I stand my point saying the halo is a good thing, if some thing would have been just centimeters different, it would have hit further back, i.e. Leclercs head (if there would be no halo).

 

[el_mattpro]

I agreed that Halo is a good thing, just saying that people always look for a excuse to say that Halo save the life of the driver just because it is 2018+ and even today we see that in the hardest situation, the halo have chances to be useless

 

[Daniel Watkin]

@Filip Carlén @JayOTT Problem SOLVED.
That was fast...

Alonso's front (right) wheel hits the FRONT of Leclerc's Halo, that means that it hit ahead Leclerc's hands

Don't usually get my self involved with these things, but this is definitely the most convincing video I've seen of the halo doing it's job. Look at the rotation of Fernando's car, the front right wheel headed straight for the cockpit, and there is no doubt the halo stopped it. I don't get how people are saying they want to see more danger in F1, Charles is 20 years old and a very possible future world champion. Do some people really want to risk losing that for entertainment?

 

[Richard Dastardly]

A car falling on top of another car is the same scenario as the car flipping - the driver's head has to be under the line from the rollbar to some structural part of the bodywork and has been since people started caring about rollovers, so a line to probably just in front of the cockpit and somewhere in the sidepods if you're looking sideways. A car landing on another car is not a new occurrence, and all the halo did in this case was keep it a bit further away. There is the edge case of a car in the air landing one of it's wheels on the driver ( has that ever happened? ) in which case the halo probably would help.

Again though that's not the point of it. As for a screen - crowd hero Senna used to talk about feeling the change in behaviour in his car by the way the airflow changed over his helmet; I don't know how much of that is left in a modern car, but there might be enough that drivers do actually want some air in their face.

 

[Case_]

Tell me when you see a crash like today, you get excited? I do!

You should seek help IMO.

 

[Andy_J]

Yes yes, the ugly Halo did it's job. Great. Fantastic. But why not go one step further, make the cars remote controlled. That way no humans can get hurt at all. Lets make all motorsport safer than Pope Francis. Lets sanitize it as much as we can. Lets ban the TT, lets ban free rock climbing, lets ban anything remotely dangerous. Lets just do all sport via software and simulations. That's the only way the H&S and PC brigade will ever be happy.

 

[Austin Ogonoski]

Still not buying the idea that any lives have actually been 'saved' at all. We went without Halos in F1 for 67 years. It took some time to iron out the safety issues, but then there was a two decade stretch where no drivers died, and the two deaths that bookended this stretch would not have been prevented by this 'solution' to a non-existent problem.

What threads like this do is allow the FIA to get complacent and keep a rushed, haphazard solution in place. Here's an idea; instead of pretending that anything that hits the Halo is a life saved, regardless of whether or not it would ever have actually hit the driver... can we please revert to pressuring the FIA to come up with a better alternative?

I don't want to have to spend the rest of my life pretending that F1 doesn't exist because thong cars became socially acceptable.

I feel like in time, a better solution will be found and F1 in 2018 will be looked at as this awkward period. NASCAR went though the same issue from 2007 to 2012 when they re-designed the car to look like some shoebox with a splitter & Fast&Furious wing. There were indeed crashes where the COT saved lives (Michael McDowell, Texas 08) and fans weren't dismissing the safety element of it, but eventually NASCAR realized the cars were just so butt-ugly and it was costing them tons of fans, they worked to find a better solution.

Not that it created a better on-track product but you probably get the idea.

 

[paracletus]

This looks no different to what grojohn did a few years ago, yet he picked up a ban for it.
Totally forgot there is the halo on the car until this crash - honestly couldn't give a monkeys about it anymore.

 

[amtoms]

Well, I think there is too much safety in today's racing. I don't want to see death obviously but I want crashes and smashes and to be entertained. Racing is great but I want the whole package and drivers know the risks and are rewarded handsomely. If you go fast, there are risks. Tell me when you see a crash like today, you get excited? I do!

I think you had a good crash today. I agree that the crashes are entertaining, but when the driver(s) get hurt, it's too much ,,fun'' for me

 

[jimortality]

I think you had a good crash today. I agree that the crashes are entertaining, but when the driver(s) get hurt, it's too much ,,fun'' for me

That was a great crash! oh, and no one got hurt.

 

[Raikku]

I also think that LeClerc would have survived w/out halo too. It's very unlikely that car which flying over from backside of another car, would hit deadly to drivers head etc. This was just incident which happen every now and then, no need to get overly serious about it.

 

[Enthilzha]

Without the halo we can't be completely sure what would have happened. Perhaps he would have been fine. Perhaps he would have been badly injured. Perhaps he would have been killed.

With the halo we can be absolutely sure that he walked away from a very nasty crash without a scratch.

If a better alternative comes along in time then that would be great.

Until then I am grateful that we have the halo and that we know we still have a fit and healthy Charles Leclerc with us.

 

[Esox71]

Just noticed a thing, this might "solve" it. Look at this pic, especially Alonsos right front wheel suspension. It is pretty intact, and at the same angel as the other tire, suggesting that it hasn't been hit super hard yet.

But look at this pic just a few frames later. The wheel is really crocked and seams to have taken a hard hit. The only thing it could have hit right there is Leclercs halo.

Looking at the front angel the wheels are straight and pointing the same why until the McLaren rotates to much and hides the right wheel, which is about when he hit Leclerc. Pic 3 here is right when he went in to the air, and pic 4 is right before the wheel gets hidden. Looks to like it is "intact" in both pics, suggesting that the damage seen in pic 2 is done by Leclercs halo

This^^
It is not clear it's front right wheel/tyre that hooks up on halo?
Super grippy rubber on dry paint made it almost stick to it also, not skid off it.

 

[Mr Whippy]

I wonder if drivers can be more foolhardy with an increased sense of protection now they have this hoop around their head?

I think it looks daft. Why didn't they go with a windscreen?

Frankly if you're gonna react to every risk factor with a random additional part, you may as well start putting crumple zones behind the rear wheels to stop cars taking off in the first place, to come crashing down onto other cars.
Maybe fit auto-braking (like road cars) to prevent needless risky impacts too?

It should all be about reducing risk but given the history of F1 deaths and serious injuries I can't see why, if a halo is so needed, it wasn't needed back in the 80s, 90s, or 00s, or early even 10s?

It's a knee jerk reaction and the result is a weird Y fronts look to the drivers face area.

How long until the halo actually causes an accident, or makes a classical non-dangerous accident more dangerous because of it's presence?

 

[Pär Öqvist]

In what situation would the halo hurt someone?

There has been deaths before Bianchi where a halo would have saved lives. As for crashes I like them a lot as long as nobody get hurt. Its part of racing being on the limit I dont usually watch videos of regular traffic

 

[AndrewBo]

I don't like people, that just hit the disagree-rating, but not posting here WHY they disagree.

Yes, i know..... my post will recieve mass disagree-ratings. Trolls all over the place......

 

[RobJLee]

Not a fan of the halo. I'm also not a fan of Sir Jackie of Stewart (bear with me), however like Sir Jackie of Stewart, who has campaigned on safety issues since his driving days during the 60s and 70s, I'm not a fan of seeing drivers killed or maimed week in week out.

I don't know enough about the physics and mechanics of the halo to comment on it's validity as a safety device, those in the know seem to think it's a valid device, so I can only say that it looks ugly, but that can be said of the cars in general - F1 cars were much better looking 25 years ago.

Motorsport in general will always be relatively dangerous, however we should do as much as possible to protect drivers, barring wrapping them in cotton wool. I would even go as far as saying that safety promotes more exciting racing - drivers aren't going to make a move if they know they could end up dead, no matter how much of an adrenaline junkie they are.

And we should not be expecting them to put their lives on the line just to entertain us and just because the likes of Sir Stirling of Moss were foolish enough to do so.