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F1 Safety: closed cockpit (10 posts)

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rm said 1 year, 6 months ago:

Hi,
Is there any news about the introduction of a closed cockpit in F1?
I could not find any post on F1F.

I recently found this video

I had no clue about the strength of Jet fighter cockpit, really impressive

What is your opinion about this safety device?
After seeing the video, I think FIA should really think about ways to implement it, even if it means changing F1 forever.
Wonder what is the cost of such device.

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Slr said 1 year, 6 months ago:

Drivers need to be able to get out their cars very quickly in an emergency, a canopy could cause serious problems in such a situation. For example, we saw Nick Heidfeld’s car on fire twice this season, if he couldn’t get out of his car quickly, or the canopy was jammed, then Heidfeld could have been in serious trouble. It is mainly for this reason why I’m against closed cockpits.

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Zadak said 1 year, 6 months ago:

Drivers are already wedged into the cars with that arrangment arround their heads.
If the Canopy came off like that thing then getting out quickly wouldn’t be a problem.
I like the idea of canopies mainly because I think it would look awesome on an F1 car.

Just remember, head injuries are the greatest risk to modern racing drivers.

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Mads said 1 year, 6 months ago:

@slr
Well fighter pilots also needs to be able to escape pretty quickly, and they seem to do just fine with a canopy. I know you can’t fire it up into the air on a race track, but something like on the Mercedes SLS where the doors can be blown off its hinges if it is upside down so you can just push them off to the side. I don’t think it would add much time to the actual escape if the driver can just push a button/lever etc. and then push the canopy straight off the car and climb out compared to how much safer the cars would be. After all the driver suits are made to withstand heavy fire for quite some time, where their heads only needs a single hit at the speeds they are travelling at to potentially kill them.
I would much rather risk burns, then risk getting my head smacked by something at 300+ km/h.

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Keith Collantine said 1 year, 6 months ago:

Lots of previous debate on this:

Should F1 cars have cockpit covers?

Closed cockpits aren’t a perfect solution – but they may be an improvement

Interestingly, both of these pre-date Massa’s crash in 2009.

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raymondu999 said 1 year, 6 months ago:

@mads With a fighter jet there’s a lot of time to hit the seat ejection before you’re in a situation with the jet sitting on the canopy

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Mads said 1 year, 6 months ago:

@raymondu999
ha well that is true. But if it is upside down does it even matter?
If it is impossible to get out because the canopy is stuck in the ground I don’t see how the driver would get out of the car anyway.

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raymondu999 said 1 year, 6 months ago:

@mads should the car land upside down right now, should everything work the way it’s supposed to, the head shouldn’t touch the ground – the air box would hit the ground first, as would the upper surface of the safety cell.

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Mads said 1 year, 6 months ago:

@raymondu999
Yeah that is true. But doesn’t that have more to do with making sure that the drivers head is not slammed into the track when the car is upside down, thus reduce the risk of head injury, then to make sure that they can escape from the car when it is upside down?

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W-K said 1 year, 6 months ago:

We had a similar discussion bout a month ago.

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/groups/f1/forum/topic/are-canopies-the-right-solution-for-open-cockpit-racing/

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