"The Head and Neck Support (HANS) system will be given its long-awaited Grand Prix debut at the Italian round next weekend.
Sauber drivers Nick Heidfeld and Felipe Massa have refined the carbon-fibre device to perfectly fit their frames during extensive testing and will trial it in the practice session on Friday. If that works they will use it in qualifying and then in Sunday’s race.
‘I am very happy with the way we have adjusted it now to suit me and felt completely comfortable with it,’ Massa told the BBC.
‘The team plans to race it for both us.’
HANS, invented by an American professor and backed by McLaren-Mercedes and the FIA, works by restricting harmful movement of the head and neck in the event of an accident. The idea for a neck brace first came about in 1995 following Mika Hakkinen’s accident in Adelaide when the Finn’s head hit the steering wheel after his car lost control following a tyre deflation and hit the tyre barrier at brewery bend at high speed.
The device will be compulsory from next season but has not been widely used because drivers overall have found it to be too uncomfortable.
well.. wanted to add this image to it:
kind of a funny sight I think but well.. safety before everything else