n smikle wrote:Just make it a quick release, Or make it split in two and to the side.
If the car flips over (Very rare) the air box will tilt the car high enough to leave enough room for the driver to come out.
The helmets can be improved too, why not?
How many drvers in the past ten years have gotten out of an upside down car, on grass, asphalt, or in gravel with little difficulty? I'd say none, or at best very few. Adding a canopy or enclosure to that situation and the extraction of a driver under his own power is greatly increased in both time and difficulty. Also like someone metioned, what about oil getting on it? Would you have tearoffs, would there be a rule in the case of someone having a fire like Jenson had in Melbourne not too far back and getting oil all over Fisi's visor, would there be a rule requiring everyone the was within a certain distance behind to stop and have the windscreen inspected for oil on it? What about a quick release failing and it allowing the air pressure to slam it rapidly against the cockpit, for even a few seconds, and injuring the driver? Also what if it failed and came off the car and hit a following car or cars, or landed on the track and someone hit it sending it into the crowd killing a spectator? A tether wouldn't work because you'd have the thing tethered to car and if the catch failed it could quite literally beat the driver to death and it would be one more thing for a driver to possibly get caught on while trying to get out of a car quickly. None of the people in favor of a canopy or something similar have even come close to answering those questions while at the same time advocating the idea the most.
I agree about improving helmets but it has to be said again and again. The more you add to a helmet, as has been stated time and again on this forum, you add weight and that can and will be much more dangerous to a driver than any help in reduction of damage from debris. We've seen many times over the last few season drivers hit something and become stationary and every little bit of weight added to the helmet increases the risk of injury in an event that is much more common than being hit by debris. Again, most are not looking at the whole picture, just having the attitude that something, anything, should be done in the name of 'safety.'