Headrest materials

[gcrossan]

Hi all

Lurked for a long time and find the discussions fascinating but something has come up this morning and I cant find an answer so thought I'd ask.

On my F1 timing app this morning it says "blue headrest material must be used".

This is a phrase I haven't come across before.
What is special about this material?
Why would you use this in P1 (and then possibly not other sessions)? It is a safety device after all.

Couldnt find anything in the regs and google searches draws billions of hits but no answers. If there is any reference material or discussions could you help me find them please?

Or is this just some quirk of the app and the headrest material is the same within a team/across teams and used all times?

Thanks for any help folks.

[shelly]

Under the fiberglass layer which gives it tha appearance of bodywork, the head rest is made of a foam with specific mechanical properties in order to adsorb head impacts. These elastic properties ae specified in the rules; the supplier of the foam is common to all teams iirc.

Since machanical propeties of the foam are stronly dependent on ambient temperature, two different foams are used: one for cold ambient temperatures (its color is red-pink) and one for hottr temperatures (color bule).

You can have sometimes a glimpse of this foam in parc fermè, when the head rest is removed and sides of it usually hidden are shown.

[gcrossan]

AHHH brilliant!

I've seen the foam when they're unclipping it to enter/exit but wasn't aware of the different colours. Something for me to look out for now!

Thanks v much

[hardingfv32]

Shelly I believe you, but where did you learn this wonderful detail?

Brian

[Crucial_Xtreme]

Under the fiberglass layer which gives it tha appearance of bodywork, the head rest is made of a foam with specific mechanical properties in order to adsorb head impacts. These elastic properties ae specified in the rules; the supplier of the foam is common to all teams iirc.

Since machanical propeties of the foam are stronly dependent on ambient temperature, two different foams are used: one for cold ambient temperatures (its color is red-pink) and one for hottr temperatures (color bule).

You can have sometimes a glimpse of this foam in parc fermè, when the head rest is removed and sides of it usually hidden are shown.

Nico's headrest laying on the ground after the Chinese GP. You can clearly see they foam you're speaking of.

[Richard]

I'd have thought blue=cold and red = hot

[hardingfv32]

I'd have thought blue=cold and red = hot

Even though it is F1, it might be the case that they take what they are given by the manufactures.

Brian

[ubrben]

http://www.aviationsupplyonline.com/cat ... _id=244006

Ben

[furious_g]

As ben posted above. The foam is called "CONFOR".

I've got some of the blue (medium) and it's quite strange stuff. The bits I have are only 1" thick, but you can put it against a brick wall and punch it as hard as you want without hurting your hand. It's quite amazing.

It is quite firm, but after compression returns VERY slowly to its original shape.

As far as colours go:

PINK = Soft
Blue = Medium
Green = Firm

http://www.earsc.com/HOME/products/Cush ... sp?SID=265

[Paul]

The more you know... Quite fascinating.

[Crucial_Xtreme]

Noticed this shot of Webber's headrest in Bahrain yesterday. Blue.




@mzivtins Thanks for spotting my mistake. I meant Webber but typed Vettel. Fixed.

[mzivtins]

Noticed this shot of Vettel's headrest in Bahrain yesterday. Blue.

[img]http://www.formula1.com/wi/0x0/sutton/2 ... 61.jpg[img]

Good spot! Webber though... but yeah, the ambient temps were much lower on sunday but still high enough for blue? hmmm i wonder what the thresholds are?

[G37Sam]

F1 never fails to fascinate me

[shelly]

As the OP wrote, I think it is the fia that for each session tells the team which (colour of) foam should be used