Safety cockpit canopies ruled out by Formula 1 team bosses – Formula 1 news
Recent reports have revealed that the new safety cockpit canopies and screens at the front of the cars for driver’s safety have been ruled out by most of the team bosses of Formula 1.
Ross Brawn, the team boss for Mercedes GP, has stated that extracting a driver from the car in case of any sort of emergency would become difficult if this rule is passed.
“You can have covers and you can have canopies, but you also have to be able to get at a driver to extract him. There are a lot of secondary considerations,” said Brawn.
According to the officials of the sport, the cars can be covered with poly-carbonate screens which would make it even more dangerous for the drivers if the car catches fire. The drivers now can easily get out of the car quickly in such situations and one
has to admit that cars catch fire more often than any other mishap.
This rule change is being considered as Felipe Massa had a near fatal accident during the 2009 Formula 1 season after which he was unable to compete for the rest of the season as he went into a coma.
During the Hungarian Grand Prix of 2009, Massa was hit in the head with a heavy spring which flew right at him from the car in front at around 200 mph. After that, the Ferrari driver went unconscious and drove right into the tyre wall at full speed.
Since then, the Brazilian driver has not been able to compete up to the mark and he might not stay at Ferrari for the 2012 Formula 1 season either.
Therefore, to avoid such incidents, the officials of the sport were considering this option but it seems that it might not be possible to pull it off with full safety assurances.
The teams are also not comfortable with this proposal and it seems that the drivers might not be too comfortable with it either.
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