F1 Driver Head Protection

just look at the BMW there from only a few years ago to see the difference.

I thought that too. Just compare that to now.

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From a frontal impact the drivers head isn't going anywhere. It would be better to work on helmet technology.
 
I don't see the problem with this. no one have said it is going to look exactly the same as the test version. Sure, I hate some of the safety these days such as not racing when it rains anymore, but this would be a very minor thing to keep them much safer.

There have been a few incidents, the one with coulthard comes to mind, where driver heads have very nearly impacted.
 
Your talking about 'something' in front of the driver that is strong enough to deflect a 200mph wheel and tyre... its hardly going to be an almost invisible cosmetic tweak is it?

I wonder if windscreens on any GT cars or LMP cars could even withstand that impact?
 
I'm sure you're old enough to remember the time when an F1 driver snuffed it at every other race :p

Yes I do remember it very well & the racing was much more exciting.
Compare F1 to Bike racing at the TT or North West 200 & you'd say that F1 is Ultra safe.
If Dudes can race around the streets at 200mph on a bike then F1 on track is tame in comparison & should be left as is.
 
Your talking about 'something' in front of the driver that is strong enough to deflect a 200mph wheel and tyre... its hardly going to be an almost invisible cosmetic tweak is it?

I wonder if windscreens on any GT cars or LMP cars could even withstand that impact?

Sure it can be, F1 is the pinnacle of Motorsport.
 
I don't think "how it looks" should ever come before driver safety.

That's not what I said.

Driver visibility is important therefore any form of roll hoop mounted infront of the driver will need to be carefully designed so that it doesn't impede their visibility while still being effective in preventing a tyre htting their head. The roll-hoop idea on its own still isn't going to guarantee a small spring hitting their head as in the case of Massa.
 
Where are the wheel tethers attached? They seem to do a pretty decent job when a car crashes into a wall or something, but there was that incident in China a couple of years back when the Toro Rosso lost both wheels under braking when the suspension failed.

It was at relatively slow speed admittedly and just coming out of the pits, but didnt JB's wheel come off completely at Silverstone?

I would love to know how the tethers work in regards to pit stops, as the pit crew only loosen /tighten one nut per wheel dont they?

Loop looks completely nuts (no pun intended), visibility would have to be really badly affected, and I would hate canopies. Windscreens are just changing the problem to glass/plastic debris instead of tyres imo so Im not sure that would work either.
 
The tethers are attached to the hub, not the wheel itself. They are designed to tie the hub to the chassis in the even that the suspension arms fail. Its the job of the wheel nut to hold the actual wheel to the hub.

There is definately scope for improvement around the wheel nuts. I'm sure they could develop some centrifugal device that stops the wheel coming off at speed if the nut comes off.
 
Bit of a strange set of arguments going on here. I'd rather see parachutes on wheels rather than canopies/roll-hoops? What kind of argument is that for yaying or naying head protection?! :p

I don't see any problems with canopies, that test already showed it can deflect tyres and can do the job.

Cooling the driver may be an issue, but with some ducts there's no way an F1 team couldn't overcome that.

I don't see what the problem is. :confused: What's wrong with trying to give them more protection? Do you want to see their heads stoved in by tyres or debris? Just because you think it hasn't happened before, as has already been proven wrong, it doesn't mean it won't happen in the future. Odd.
 
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sorry for the possibly very dumb thought, but wouldnt wheel parachutes make a wheel falling off worse than it is already for drivers.

i'm thinking that, in 99% of cases, the driver in danger of being hit in the head with a tyre is racing behind the car that the rouge wheel belonged to. a parachute would make it slow down more quickly, giving the driver behind less time to react to the wheel coming off and increasing the closing speed of the car and the wheel

obviously this isnt the case if the wheel hops over the barriers to another bit of the track with cars coming towards it, but that can be cured with better trackside protection

*edit*
the best solution is clearly to give all F1 cars these very well behaved wheels

 
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I'm pretty sure the 'wheel parachutes' idea was in jest.

it was :P

I don't see any problems with canopies, that test already showed it can deflect tyres and can do the job.
they should do the test again with the canopy traveling forward at 180mph when its hit.

whats the point in shooting something at a static object? theres mo than twice as much force when both objects are moving towards each other
 
whats the point in shooting something at a static object? theres mo than twice as much force when both objects are moving towards each other

Firstly, in what situation is anything in F1 going to be doing 180mph in opposite directions? Everything is travelling in roughly the same direction. Even the Massa spring impact was with a spring travelling in the same direction as Massa at probably near 100mph. It wasn't flying towards him, he just caught it up.

And secondly, how do you bend the laws of physics to make 1 + 1 = more than 2?

As for canopies, the problem is they will always have to move in 'a direction' to be removed. Be that upwards, forwards, sideways, whatever. With this there is always the possibility of a car ending up in a situation where the direction the canopy need to move in to be released is blocked by debris or the track or a barrier, etc. In road car based racers or closed prototypes there are always 2 doors, so 2 ways out. An F1 car with a canopy would have only a single direction of escape, greatly increasing the risk of being trapped.
 
Firstly, in what situation is anything in F1 going to be doing 180mph in opposite directions? Everything is travelling in roughly the same direction. Even the Massa spring impact was with a spring travelling in the same direction as Massa at probably near 100mph. It wasn't flying towards him, he just caught it up.
i thought it ghot flipped up in the air and forced the oposite way to what f1 cars drive the circuit?
 
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