The introduction of the Halo for the 2018 season has been one of the primary talking points in the run-up to this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix. Motorsport Week has compiled some of the differing viewpoints, and analysis, provided by drivers on Thursday at the Hungaroring.
Sebastian Vettel: The Halo test I did was last year in Abu Dhabi, and for sure you need to get used to it, but at least it didn't impact on vision. Obviously there's been a lot of talk as I got it. Overall you need to understand that it's a decision that helps us in car in case something goes very wrong. For sure if you look at Formula 1, the way Formula 1 cars look and so on, I can understand if people say that it doesn't belong on a Formula 1 car. On the other hand, I think times are changing, you are moving forward. If you offer the system as it stands, with the power it has to give us additional protection… offer that to Justin Wilson, sometime ago, then I think he would take it, and we would all be happy to take it, to help save his life. We can't turn back clock, but knowing that something is there that helps us in certain situations, it would be ignorant and stupid to ignore. Overall it's supposed to help us, so that's what we need to remember. With aesthetics, it's always difficult to please everybody, but I think the Halo system we saw last year will probably not be the one we see next year, the year after. It's one of those things where maybe they start off not so good looking and actually they're not so bad.
Fernando Alonso: I think first is the safety. If this device can help in many of the fatal accidents that we had in the last 10-15 years, we are all happy to implement the device. If we could go back in time and save lives we would all be happy, so that's the first and only thing that we should talk [about]. With the aesthetics, I don't care too much, to be honest. Formula 1 has changed a lot. From my first year in 2001 to now, the cars are very different; the height of the front nose, the height of the cockpit to protect the helmet area. 40 or 50 years ago they didn't have seatbelts and when seatbelts were implemented there was not any debate. For me there is no question. I'm happy to implement any head protection, extra head protection for next year. If the FIA studied and developed the Halo, and this is the most effective way to protect the head of the drivers, this is more than welcome, in my opinion.
Romain Grosjean: I am still against it, I don't think it's got a [place] in Formula 1. As a GPDA member and director, and a driver, I need to thank the FIA for all the research, because the research has been pretty strong, and the Halo is a strong device against a lot of cases. But there are occasions where it can get worse, which I'm not particularly a fan of, and there are a few problems that we may have that we haven't thought of. Seeing the starting lights on the grid… no one has tried that, and they're always different. Seeing flags on the side… things like that, we need to see a bit more of it.
Sergio Pérez: I'm in favour of it. Safety always comes first. If we had the Halo now, probably over the last six or seven years it would have saved at least a life. I think once we implement the Halo the teams will improve it. It needs a lot of work, but I think that it will be improved a lot. We have very clever engineers in Formula 1 and now that all the teams know that it will be in place next year I believe that they will improve it a lot.
Felipe Massa: My opinion is that I’m totally in favour of the safety, it’s true maybe the Halo in my accident would not help a lot. I am in favour of the Halo, or maybe the shield, but the shield was not really very well done in the way that it just…our visibility is completely disturbed for this very big screen, so maybe the Halo is the only solution for the moment, and definitely we need to drive, we need to have completely the right answer when everybody is driving with the Halo, which maybe will only happen in February. I trust the FIA, everything they did for the safety so many years helps, so I’m in favour.
Esteban Ocon: All the drivers were in favour of the Halo, or not the Halo but the solution to bring safety, in that aspect we can’t complain now we have something for more safety. For sure it’s not the most aesthetic one, and not a fantastic solution, but it’s the best the FIA has, and we’re happy the FIA works for safety, for sure in the future if there’s a better solution everyone will be happy to get it.
Pascal Wehrlein: It’s positive that it’s safer for us, then of course I think what everyone dislikes about it is how it looks. The cars this year look fantastic compared to previous years, much faster, more aggressive, it seems like how the cars look everything is going in the right direction then the Halo is something not so positive for the look…but the main point for the FIA was to improve the safety and the Halo is doing that and we have to look on the positive side that it’s safer and on the negative side that it looks worse.
Lance Stroll: I've never driven with it, I know a lot of drivers have, I don’t know what it looks like from inside the cockpit, bit if it makes the car safer and if the drivers are happy with visibility then I don’t see why we shouldn’t use it.
Max Verstappen: I don’t like it, but of course you have to respect the decision of the FIA. Since we introduced the VSC, that reduced a lot of risk when you speed under yellows, then with the wheel tethers, they’re quite strong, you won’t lose the wheel easily, I don’t really understand why we should need it.
Jolyon Palmer: I think it’s a mistake, there’s no coming back from it sadly, this’ll be the end of F1 as we know it with open cockpit, it’s an overreaction to problems in other series, since 1994 there’s been one [driver] fatality, which is tragic, the Halo wouldn’t have stopped it, so the Halo would have stopped no death in F1 in 23 years, because of an IndyCar incident, F2 incident, different tracks, different safety measures, we’re introducing something that changes the whole tradition and history of it and I think it’s the wrong move.
Kevin Magnussen: I'm against it. I don't think it's what Formula 1 is about. I think there should be… a more clever way to improve the safety. I don't think the Halo is the right way. In general, I don't agree that safety always is number one, I think there is a limit where it comes too safe to be exciting. I think part of the reason Formula 1 is popular because of the element of danger. I think it's moved on huge amounts in the last 30 years, and that's been very good, but I think it's safe enough now that it's exciting and it feels right to go racing. We could always make it more safe, we could make the cars go a maximum of 80km/h, but it would be very boring. You can always make it safer, but you will make it less exciting.
Stoffel Vandoorne: I think aesthetically it's not the nicest thing we've put on the car and I think a lot of people agree with that. We've been pushing to improve head protection, the FIA have done a lot of investigations into what would be the best solution, trying a couple of different solutions, with the screen being tested as well. I think for them, that [the Halo] was the best solution. I don't think it's a big surprise to see it in 2018 on the cars.
