Charles Leclerc admitted he was “lucky” that Formula 1 introduced the halo for 2018 after seeing the marks on the device left by Fernando Alonso’s McLaren.
Formula 1 has been striving to increase head protection in recent years after a series of incidents and near-misses, and introduced the halo for 2018 after an extensive evaluation process.
Leclerc was involved in a multi-car pile-up on the opening lap of the Belgian Grand Prix, triggered when Nico Hulkenberg erred under braking for the La Source hairpin.
Hulkenberg pitched Alonso’s McLaren sideways and into the air, with the car making contact with the halo on Leclerc’s Sauber, leaving black marks on the system.
“I mean I don’t know how it will have ended up without it but looking at it I’m happy it was there,” said Leclerc.
“I’ve been lucky on this one. Looking at the halo it’s not looking good.”
Leclerc rued his second successive first-lap exit on a weekend where Sauber displayed encouraging pace during practice.
“In pure pace we were very very strong this weekend,” he said. “I mean again looking back at quali we were extremely strong if you look at Q1.
“Unfortunately in Q2 both of our cars have been hit by different issues, myself on the brakes and Marcus [Ericsson] couldn’t do his second run.
“But the pace was there and this is extremely important.
“Monza should be a good one for us. Hopefully we can bounce back and show our real potential and performance there.”
Ericsson added another point to his and Sauber’s tally by rounding out the top 10.
