Building it safe with Halos and Shields

Driver safety has always been a highly neglected aspect of the sport in its initial years. Then came drivers who fought for driver safety, and were able to get the organiser’s attention to the issue. One of them being the famous Formula 1 Legend Niki Lauda. But still the issue was not really given priority. Ayrton Senna’s crash (and Roland Ratzenberger‘s for that matter) really tuned FIA’s head towards driver safety. Many new changes were made to the rules like reduced front wing and diffuser sizes. And now, even though the sport is safer than ever, FIA is not going to stop.

Although the concept has been here for a long time, the debate between whether to use Halos or Shields has always troubled FIA. FIA has been interested and invested in Halos for a lot of time until Red Bull came out with their Aeroscreen. From there on speculations started to ring that which of the two are going to be used or if both were going to be given equal opportunity.

Now drivers were clearly divided. While there were drivers who favoured one over the other, some of them believed that Formula 1 should remain open cockpit as it has for most of its history. But after all the debates and excellent points for why one is better than the other, FIA has gone for shields.

Shields definitely look better from the side but from the front, they just ruin the car. If the teams decide to use shields, it will definitely take some time to get used to see these weird wall in front of the driver. One can easily make the same case with Halo. They look distracting and on first look, driver-unfriendly. Looking at the pictures, one does wonder if these devices even contribute to any kind of driver safety? And if yes, then to what extent?

Formula1 has always been a dangerous sport. Multiple lives have been lost in pursuit of a perfect lap in a perfect race. And this factor has always been a great contributor to the sport’s success. But Formula 1 is safer than ever. Though it is still a dangerous sport, it is hard to decide when we sanitise it too much, for it not to be fun anymore. A shield sure is a great step in safety, but apart from a flying tyre, it also blocks the spirit of this sport. Open wheel-Open cockpit racing is what Formula 1 is about and we could be losing something great. We will lose the pinnacle of motorsport.