The debate over cockpit safety in Formula One has been reignited following the horrendous crash involving Fernado Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Romain Grosjean, Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi at the start of yesterday's Belgian GrandPrix in SPA which resulted in Romain Grosjean being suspended for this weekend's Italian GrandPrix.
During the accident, Grosjean's car flew over the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso narrowly missing the Spaniards head but destroying the top of the cockpit of his car. After the race a visibly shook Alonso admitted that he was extremely lucky to escape the accident without serious injury.
The resulting collision has reopened the debate about cockpit safety in open wheel racing. There have been further calls for there to be closed cockpit's in Formula One. Following Maria De Villota's testing crash earlier this year which resulted in the Spanish Marussia test driver losing her right eye the FIA immediately began safety test's on a fighter jet style canopy for Formula One.
The canopy idea however, has ignited safety fears among the F1 community as their are concerns as to how the canopy would work if a car landed upside down following a crash.
In my opinion it is the perfect opportunity for Formula One and the IndyCar Series to come together and find a common solution to the safety of drivers. The Head and Neck Safety device which is now mandatory for all driver's competing in top level Motorsport doesn't go far enough in my opinion. At last year's IndyCar finale in Las Vegas Britain's Dan Wheldon was tragically killed following a horrendous crash.
There must be some way of introducing a canopy style device over a cockpit which could automatically detach from a car as a result of a car turning over. F1 engineers and designs are extremely clever people and the F1 technical group should be able to come together to find a solution to the cockpit safety issue.
No comments:
Post a Comment