FLOYD ON F1: Safety officials have plenty to ponder

The huge multi-car accident at the British F1 Grand Prix resulted in unanimous praise for the “halo” safety device, which undoubtedly saved Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu’s life and prevented serious injury.

Further investigation revealed the young Chinese driver was extremely fortunate.

Images of the accident show the drivers’ roll hoop, mounted above and behind his head, broke away almost immediately when the inverted car struck the track surface. This is a critical component in the effectiveness of the halo.

If you envisage an imaginary line running from the highest point of the halo to the highest point of the roll hoop, it will give you the amount of safe clearance above the driver’s helmet.

Remove the roll hoop and repeat the exercise using the body-work below the roll hoop as the highest point, and the clearance is radically reduced.

The roll hoop in use on the F1 Alfa Romeo C42 is the single mount “blade” type and is secured to the car’s carbon fibre chassis.

Such structures have to pass the stringent FIA testing before the season begins and the C42 passed.
Following the Silverstone incident, perhaps the testing procedure should be reviewed to eliminate the possibility of such failures reoccurring.

But further serious safety concerns arose from the same crash.

Following multiple rolls, the car jumped the tyre barrier and landed in the wire catch fence, finally coming to rest between the fence and barrier.

This proved to be a problem for both marshals and medical personnel in their efforts to assess any injuries and extract the driver, with the space between the fence and barrier being extremely narrow.
So narrow, it would have been impossible for even an uninjured driver to exit the cockpit within the time specified in the FIA safety parameters.

ALSO READ: Floyd on F1 safety concerns after Zhou crash

Another area requiring investigation by the governing body’s safety officials. I dread to think of the possible consequences if the Alfa had caught fire.

It appears F1 thrives on controversy, both on and off track.

According to many, the FIA’s new policies regarding officials and application of the rules and regulations are not producing the fair and unbiased scenario all had hoped for this season.

Last weekend’s Austrian F1 Grand Prix saw driver’s expressing their apparent dissatisfaction.

Sebastian Vettel walked out of Friday evening’s drivers’ briefing without permission after expressing his “frustration” at the meeting and was handed a €25 000 (about R430 000) fine by the stewards because leaving the meeting without permission is a breach of the requirements.

A subsequent meeting with the race director resulted in constructive dialogue and the punishment becoming a suspended penalty.

There has also been a call from some drivers to drop the concept of alternate race directors and stewards to ensure more consistent application of the FIA rules and regulations.

A plethora of fines was issued over the weekend, and competitors were not happy. Understandable. The application of official rules is not always popular, but then you have to face that “rules are rules”.

To see the latest driver’s standings in this year’s F1 championship, click here.