^few more to that
Autosport wrote:Closed cockpits now appear to be inevitable in Formula 1, with technical chiefs set to ramp up efforts to bring them in following Fernando Alonso's lucky escape in the first lap crash at the Belgian Grand Prix.
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"I think 2014 is intended, as we started the project a year ago," said Lowe, who has been involved in work on the cockpit project. "Personally I think something is inevitable because it is the one big [safety] exposure that we have got.
"You see it time and time again and think 'that was lucky'. One day it won't be lucky. At the same time it is an open cockpit formula so we have to protect that, but it should be technically possible one way or another."
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Lowe says that an initial focus on canopy protection has now been abandoned, with tests highlighting that a bar/cage type design is much better.
"We have made a test piece and it has been tested structurally with various impacts, like firing wheels at it, and that was successful.
"So we understand some of the parameters in terms of the angles that are needed and the strength of the pieces. The work that is currently in progress is assessing its visibility, and we've done some work on the simulator with our interpretation.
"Ideally a driver wants nothing in the way, but in the same way as you drive a road car or even the old VW camper van with the centre pillar, you just get used to it don't you? We found that as long as the pillars don't get too big it is something you can get used to.
"So we have some parameters about pillar size, and now we are looking at making something with that pillar size and to the right strength requirement."
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and in case of a fire with a malfunctioning button the driver will burn...motorloon1993 wrote:http://s12.postimage.org/jt3dqqmm5/0_0_0_0.jpg
upload pictures
Please forgive the awful rendering of this idea but how about this? First post by the way this is a fantastic forum that I read constantly, the grey curved bars are 4 roll bars one is out of view, the red dots represent the points were the cage bars attach. The black outline towards the front if the cockpit represents a windshield.
The cage and windshield can be detached using a button on the steering wheel or from a button on the car similar to the neutral gear button.
When you first posted that (thanks), you commented on how much of the field of view it actually covers. I remember being surprised by how little!N12ck wrote:so paddy lowe is suggesting that they will have cages,, looks like this from driver view :
steering wheel off 3d warehouse
That "roll thing" is aerodynamic. It works with the small wind screen to divert the air stream around the driver's helmet.raymondu999 wrote:Basically, an extension of what they have now, only the roll thing at the front is to prevent the driver's head from hitting the road if the car goes upside down. I was thinking actually... why not side walls instead? The raised cockpit sides, extend them higher and further forward.
The current roll bar and cockpit bulkhead is spaced so that the helmet never touches the ground when upside down.raymondu999 wrote: only the roll thing at the front is to prevent the driver's head from hitting the road if the car goes upside down.
Completely agree. Not to mention it would be shredding Grosjean's car right in front of Alonso's face, with the possibility of parts, fluid, even fuel getting into Alonso's cockpit.MIKEY_! wrote:Having seen how grosjean's car hit alonso's i realise the forward roll hoop is an even worse idea than i thought. it could have done serious damage to grosjean's car in a similar accident. It might puncture the sidepod, tearing radiator or fuel lines and the small cross-section of the hoop could cause it to damage other crash structures it impacts. we really do need something better.