Given the events of the British GP this weekend in one day the Halo saved 2 drivers lives. I think its pretty important that the placement of sausage kerbs and safety barriers are looked into by the FIA.
Ill start with the sausage kerbs.
The F2 race saw a car that was unable to be controlled, due to earlier contact causing a lot of damage, run along the grass and take flight after hitting a sausage kerb on the inside of a corner. This ultimately meant the car ended up hitting the halo of a car going round the corner. Had this kerb not been there, the severity of the incident would have likely been a lot less and used the side impact structure of the car to absorb the out of control car hitting it. Last year we also saw the red bull get pushed/thrown up off the sausage kerb at Monza with the Mercedes (please no discussion of blame, fault, max vs Lewis etc here). Had that kerb not been there, its likely wouldnt have meant the Halo would have needed to protect Lewis as the car wouldnt have jumped up.
Im sure there are other instances of the sausage kerbs sending cars flying into the air.
I propose/ see a solution for this by the way of removing the sausage kerb, but replacing it with a thicker white/yellow line which becomes the 'track limit'. This would mean that no part of the tyre can touch that part of the line, with persistent offenders given 1 chance not to cut/run wide/use the run off, on that part of the track. This could be easily enforced with pressure sensors in the lines of those locations meaning there would be no grey area for whether a car touched the line or not. BTCC (British touring cars) have used pressure pads in kerbs/run off areas before.
Alternatively, you could put a flappy bollard, or combine it with the pressure pads to give further visual awareness.
The safety barriers.
I think the safety fence did a great job of protecting the spectators from 8-900kg of flying F1 car today. However, the location that Zhou's car come to rest which was wedged between the barrier and the rear of the armco wasnt ideal. This could/would have made extraction of the driver by marshalls/medics a lot harder, due to the car being wedged between the two barriers. Also, had the car caught fire, it might have hampered fire fighting efforts due to the tight location. we should also note the exposed supports of the armco landed very closely/if not touching the Halo of the car.
I propose/see a solution, for moving the spectator safety fence 2-4metres further back than what the fence is currently positioned at. This would give rescue attempts much more room around the car in order for any driver extraction, fire fighting, general marshalling duties etc. It would also mean there is a smaller chance of a car clearing the safety barrier due to being further back.
I also think that the exposed steel supports of the armco could at least be covered over with something, such as a piece of armco at 90degrees to the vertical face of the barrier. This covers up any potential for cars to fall onto a thick support post and potentially puncturing car bodywork, or having chance of entering/further damaging the halo with a thick piece of H beam steel.
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