MOTORSPORT: Ferrari 'halo' shines light on safety

Moves for greater head protection for open-wheeler race drivers are gathering pace, with Ferrari revealing its first interpretation of the 'halo' likely to be mandatory on Formula 1 cars next year.

Kimi Raikkonen drove two warm-up laps of Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya with the device, which was fixed to the cockpit of the new Ferrari, model SF16-H, with a central pillar right in front of him and two others either side of his helmet before setting the pace on the second last day of pre-season testing before the Australian Grand Prix in a fortnight.

Climbing into the cockpit was a little more difficult for Raikkonen as the carbon fibre 'halo' did not have a hinge that the final version will, but he said visibility "was OK".

"A bit limited in the front, but [the design] can change," said the veteran of 232 GPs, a 20-time winner and 2007 world champion.

McLaren-Honda driver and 2009 world champion Jenson Button wondered how drivers would get out of cockpits in a hurry in an emergency but said greater head protection, especially from flying debris like tyres, "is something that is needed in the sport – it's for a great reason".

Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull team is planning to unveil a different version of the 'halo' next month.

The BBC's chief F1 writer Andrew Benson has reported that a source has described Red Bull's interpretation as a "half-canopy" but "one senior insider" told him the design "doesn't look very promising".

The IndyCar community in North America is closely watching the F1 developments, which have come after the world governing Federation Internationale de l'Autombobile (FIA) studied three concepts.

The FIA preferred the 'halo' idea that originated within the Mercedes team that has dominated F1 the past two seasons and is expected to remain on top this season.

However, Raikkonen's race simulation in Barcelona last night, including laps on Pirelli's latest ultra-soft tyres, was said to have compared favourably with those of Merc's Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg this week.

Ricciardo, sixth fastest in Wednesday's testing but almost two seconds slower than that day's pace-setting Valterri Bottas in a Williams-Mercedes, will be back in his Red Bull RB12 again powered by Renault's hybrid engine – although now badged TAG Heuer – for tonight's final runs before departure for Melbourne.

Sebastian Vettel may get to experience Ferrari's 'halo' tonight.

The latest major safety move follows the deaths of F1 driver Jules Bianchi from head injuries suffered in the 2014 Japanese GP and Justin Wilson in an IndyCar race late last season.

The new 'halos' are expected to add only about 5kg to the weight of an F1 car but, apart from visibility, there are concerns about drivers being trapped in cockpits by them.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said his outfit's interpretation of the concept had been tried on its simulator but "we're concerned with some visibility issues".

"I'm not a fan of that [halo] system … I think we can do better than that with something a bit more elegant rather than a big piece of carbon fibre right in front of the driver's face," Horner said.

However, the BBC's Benson noted that "the driver's eye-line is below the main body of the [Ferrari] structure, while the central support strut at the front effectively disappears from view because of a human's binocular vision. However, there is some concern that it might impede the view of the starting lights in certain circumstances."

Andy Mellor, the FIA's lead researcher for the Global Institute for Road Safety on the head protection project, said: "We need to avoid creating any blindspots as that would introduce an unacceptable additional risk during racing. We are looking to achieve a structure that provides a full panorama of forward and sideways binocular vision, allowing only very small areas of monocular vision restricted by the structure."

Ferrari said that while its 'halo' was an early prototype it expected it to be "pretty close" to the final shape.

Triple world champion Hamilton declined to comment, but Mercedes teammate Rosberg said the device was a "massive step in safety" and "looked very cool".

He posted a photo on his Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages of Raikkonen driving with it, asking for the opinions of fans – getting a 25 per cent positive reaction and 75 negative.

Williams driver Felipe Massa, who suffered serious head injuries in 2009 when a flying suspension spring from fellow Brazilian Rubens Barrichello's Brawn car hit his helmet, said the 'halo' was not pretty but greater head protection was needed.

"Safety is the most important thing and I totally agree with the halo or the closed cockpits or whatever," Massa said.

However, German Nico Hulkenberg, of the Force India team and a potential Ferrari driver with Raikkonen likely to retire at the end of this season, said the 'halo' not only "looks horrible" but should not be introduced to F1.

"Don't do it. It sends the wrong message. F1 is very safe at the moment," Hulkenberg said.

"I don't like it. It's just one of these little personal things that I wouldn't like to see it."

Hulkenberg said an element of danger made F1 more attractive and he accepted the risks that come with it.

"You can't sterilise the sport," he said.

"There needs to be an element of danger – in a way that's sexy and attractive and it's also what F1 needs.

"Safety standards in F1 are pretty high and very good, I'd be happy to accept those risks and keep running as we are.

"For me it (the 'halo') feels like trying to eliminate every little bit of risk."

Hamilton and Alonso fire up about F1
While he won't talk about the new head protection device, Lewis Hamilton has had a little more to say about the general state of F1, agreeing that it's "broken" and lacking direction.

His comments follow those recently by F1 commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone that the sport was unwatchable in this V6 hybrid era and that he would not pay to take his family to see a GP.

Hamilton, the 2008, '14 and '15 world champion, said MotoGP was a lot more exciting than F1 and that he wanted to try a GP motorcycle – or at least ride on the back of a two-seater bike.

Asked after last night's testing in Barcelona if F1 was "broken, lacking direction, or in good health?" Hamilton said: "I would probably say the first two you suggested."

He apologised for not wanting to elaborate but added: "I don't want to say too much, but I do agree with the first two things."

On MotoGP, he said it was "just so cool, much more exciting to watch, just because it's closer racing".

"I really need to try a MotoGP bike. I'm dying to at least get on the back of one. That would be so cool. I just won't tell my team that I'm doing it.

"I definitely want to make it to more [MotoGP] races this year – I've only been to one in a season, and I want to get to some more."

Fernando Alonso, F1 world champion in 2005-06, blasted recent moves to change the format of qualifying sessions.

A tweak agreed a week ago – elimination of drivers at 90-second intervals until a two-man shootout for pole position – was quickly postponed because computer software can't be adapted quickly enough and probably won't eventuate.

"It doesn't look right from the outside when in one week we change the qualifying format three times," Alonso said.

"There are too many changes, and the complexity of the rules for the spectators are quite high."

"We want simplicity on the rules.

"All my friends here in Spain want to switch on the television and watch battles, big cars, big tyres, big noise and to enjoy the race.

"They enjoy other sports, but for us [F1] they only know about MGU-H, MGU-K, status charge, super-soft, used, mandatory, medium.

"It's things like that, so they switch off the television."

Before these outbursts by two top drivers, FIA president Jean Todt called on Ecclestone to stop criticising the sport and business of which he is supposed to be the global promoter.

"Can you imagine someone going to see a new movie if the director said 'My film is shit'? Todt told Auto Bild Motorsport.

"If you want to sell a product criticism must be internal, not external. We have to represent a positive image of F1 again."

Todt hailed the hybrid power units which have so angered Ecclestone and many of F1's fans.

"We have to get them cheaper and louder, and it cannot be that a team has difficulty getting one [because they are so costly]," Todt said.

"Apart from that, the hybrid engine is one of the best things F1 has done."

Todt hoped more manufacturers – like Audi, which has dominated the Le Mans 24-hour sports car race this century, although beaten by sister marque Porsche last year – would be attracted to F1.

"I am sure that, if we make the world championship more attractive, as good business people, they cannot ignore F1," Todt said.

However, Audi's board member responsible for technical development, Stefan Knirsch, quickly reiterated his company's position that F1 was "absolutely not a topic" for his company.

"We want to win Le Mans in a championship where electric and hybrid technology plays a very major role, while we are in discussions with the DTM [the German touring car championship] about when we can introduce this kind of technology," Knirsch said.

Now it's Loeb v Solberg in rallycross
Citroen didn't have a gig for the great Sebastien Loeb this year, having scrapped its World Touring Car Championship campaign, so he's going rallycross racing with Peugeot.

Loeb becomes teammate to Swede Timmy Hansen in Team Peugeot-Hansen and a pair of 208 'Supercars' for the third World Rallycross Championship starting in Portugal in mid-April.

Hansen was runner-up last year to Norwegian Petter Solberg, who has won both World RXs since his switch from rallying – in which he was world champion in 2003, before Frenchman Loeb won nine straight WRC titles with Citroen.

Apart from venturing into circuit racing, Loeb has set a record at the famed Pikes Peak hillclimb in the US and led the first week of this year's Dakar rally in South America – both in Peugeots.

He said rallycross would be "something very special".

"The car and the strategy for this type of racing is completely new to me, so I have a lot to learn, but I hope I can be competitive pretty soon," he said.

 
Massive fields for Bathurst at Easter
It won't have the big names of other events at Mt Panorama, but the Bathurst Motor Festival at Easter has more than 300 entries.

The new six-hour production car race has 53 cars entered, there are 64 HQ Holdens competing for 55 grid places, 34 production sports cars, more than 40 Group N historic touring cars and capacity fields for the NSW Road Racing Club and Porsche Club of NSW regularity trials.

NASCAR chief's polarising politics
Ructions in NASCAR this week, with the American organisation's chairman and chief executive Brian France publicly supporting controversial property developer Donald Trump as the Republican candidate for this year's US presidential election.

The chief executive of the company that sponsors NASCAR's third-tier series, for pick-up trucks, promptly told France there was "no place for politics" or political endorsements in businesses such as NASCAR.

That was Marcus Lemonis, the Lebanese-born entrepreneur who heads Camping World.

NASCAR last year moved a banquet scheduled for a Trump-owned resort in Miami because of his comments about immigrants.

Lemonis had threatened that neither he nor any of his staff would attend the function.

Camping World is committed to NASCAR sponsorship until 2022.

This week's fuss came as NASCAR seeks a replacement sponsor for its premier series, the Sprint Cup, from next year.

Telecommunications company Sprint is withdrawing after having had the naming rights to that massively popular 36-round annual series since 2004.

Sprint is reported to have spent about US$75 million a season on NASCAR.

When a NASCAR spokesman was asked about France's support of Trump, he said: "Private personal decision by Brian."

France said he had known Trump for 20 years. His endorsement came at a university in Georgia, where NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Bill Elliott also backed Trump, as the presidential candidate introduced three of the sport's contemporary drivers – Elliott's son Chase, the pole-position qualifier at last month's Daytona 500, Ryan Newman and David Ragan.

And Trump was in typical form. "If the people that like and watch NASCAR vote for Donald Trump they can cancel the election right now. Nobody [else] can win," he trumpeted.