F1 "closed": for or against ?

[Gatecrasher]

lol what? what side? F1 cars should be open on the side now?

Why climb into an F1 Car, I don't see many applications like this on the road. If F1 truly wants to add value to road going vehicles add doors, then copy NASCAR and fake weld them up.

With a closed cockpit will we need air con next ?

[proteus]

^ how would the driver get out ?

Through the side

lol what? what side? F1 cars should be open on the side now?


I am strongly pro-halo and don't understand the anti-safety arguments whatsoever. Thankfully, in this case, F1 often ignores its fans.

There is no increased safety, when u put a blind spot infront of the driver. Imagine the eyestrain the drivers will be experiencing watching that middle pillar infront of them the whole time. And so far, there was no indication how will they drive in the rain, when water will be splashed on both sides of the windscreen (in case they use windscreen solution). Another problem that may occur is that if the driver actually gets hit in the protective halo, what if the hinge jamms and prevents driver to exit the car.

In the end this "solution" will provide much more issues and danger, than positive effects, u will see.

The last nail into the coffin will be when they will get a brilliant idea of putting mudguards on the car...

[siskue2005]

There is no increased safety, when u put a blind spot infront of the driver. Imagine the eyestrain the drivers will be experiencing watching that middle pillar infront of them the whole time. And so far, there was no indication how will they drive in the rain, when water will be splashed on both sides of the windscreen (in case they use windscreen solution). Another problem that may occur is that if the driver actually gets hit in the protective halo, what if the hinge jamms and prevents driver to exit the car.

In the end this "solution" will provide much more issues and danger, than positive effects, u will see.

The last nail into the coffin will be when they will get a brilliant idea of putting mudguards on the car...

The driver never looks directly towards the middle piller, you dont drive an F1 car or for the matter of fact any normal car....you have to look beyond the car to driver it
Windscreen cleaning? http://gizmodo.com/mclaren-is-using-fig ... 1484213049
Mclaren has these technology long ago
If you think for a moment that F1 teams wouldn't have a way of keeping a canopy clean from oil/water/rubber, then you're simply being too narrow sighted. Canopies are the most ideal way forward and it's better for aero. If the vehicle is upside down, the car is resting on the roll hoop, so the canopy can be removed.
We dont have to reinvent these queries that you mentioned above, the technology exists in other racing categories such as LMP1 cars ....just see what is happeneing there

that looks remarkably similar to an F1 car!
I am sure with the current technology we can make a compact and elegant version of the above solution

[FW17]

lol what? what side? F1 cars should be open on the side now?

[proteus]

Siskue, u forgot that in F1 car there will be no roof, so my doubts are about water getting in the inside side of the glass.

[Andres125sx]

For

I´d ask to those who are against if they´d enjoy better a F1 with front engines, no safety, not even seatbelts, no aero... as that is as F1 was originally, any other thing is a deviation... right?

Things evolve. F1 too, despite MrE, FIA, FOM....


BTW, I´m amazed reading some people explaining the numerous problems a windscreen would create... as if windscreens would be new to cars and we need to figure out what problems it will create

[FW17]

Siskue, u forgot that in F1 car there will be no roof, so my doubts are about water getting in the inside side of the glass.

Just for laughs

when it rains

The road relevance f1 needs

[Vyssion]

See, to me, if we are going to have to move to a "closed" cockpit, we may as well make it sexy as hell to appease the purists (like me) who like the open cockpit. Why the hell do we have to have soomething which quite frankly looks like a g-string sitting above the drivers head? At least with a fully closed cockpit you could argue that it is better for the environment... what with the lower drag incurred........ blegh.... "green-ness" *vomit*

[Manu_Forti]

Instead of designing a halo, screen or hood for the car that will look out of place why not redesign the regulations around a canopied safety cell for the driver. If F1 cars ended up looking like the McLaren concept above, the Red Bull concept in Gran Turismo or the MP4X concept I wouldnt be upset. F1 cars should look like they are doing 200 mph when standing still. How about a HUD as seen in fighter aircraft with the information projected onto that so critical information currently on the wheel is in the drivers field of view, have the mirrors sat either side of it too. There's another plus.

Push the boundaries a bit F1. Todays cars look out of proportion with wide front wings and skinny rear wings, adding framework around the driver will just look ridiculous. That halo device looks like an badly designed steering wheel clamp.

[mrluke]

F1 cars were perfect in 2004, all regulation should be aimed at forcing the teams to recreate the 2004 cars and nothing should ever be changed /thread.

In 20, 30, 40 years does anybody truly believe that the fastest form of motorsport will have open cockpits and exposed wheels? Be honest now.

[Jolle]

Besides improving F1 itself, they should develope a simple, straightforward and safe solution that can be adapted to anything from formula ford, formula Renault, etc etc, just like they did with the head protection and Hans.

Just like with the side protection teams should have some freedom to integrate it into their design, as long as it complies with regulations. For lower classes (where the risk is greater because of more cars on track, less experienced drivers and no wheel theaters) a relatively cheap and simple solution is needed -> the halo.

[karlinhosmg]

Sincerely, I don't understand all this "F1 is a open cockpit sport" thing... Has anything changed since the "Stock Car Racing" ceased to be "stock car" racing? Has anything changed since Le Mans prototypes aren't opened?

Wings, cars with 6 wheels, steering wheels with dozens of buttons, push-to-pass, semi-automatic transmission...

Times change and I think It's only a matter of time before we see a entirely closed cockpit.

[Tim.Wright]

Just a thought...

If covered cockpits meant we could have camera drones on track for the broadcast it would make for some badass coverage.

[Andres125sx]

Just a thought...

If covered cockpits meant we could have camera drones on track for the broadcast it would make for some badass coverage.

As a drone operator myself, I´d really love that.... but I´m afraid the cockpit has no relation to this. You first would need to get rid of that chopper, and then had to cope with rules, so different from country to country, but generally speaking, you cannot fly a drone over people, and that discard any racing track on a racing day

But man, I´d love it, you can´t imagine how many times I´ve day dreamt about it, both F1 or Paris-Dakar

[coaster]

How about a helmet with a 10mm wall section of Cf? The helmet clips to the chassis with a gimbal mount , freedom of movement in 3 axis centred at helmets centre, removing g loads on the drivers neck.
You could ditch the Hans then, subject the helmet to a nose cone style of crash test.

Maybe needs some tuning with inertia damping to prevent brain trauma though.