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Jules died because of the horrendous deceleration (after disregarding a yellow flag, just to mention the real cause here). So a closed cockpit would have changed nothing. I stand with Lewis on this one and the uproar it has caused in social media speaks for itself. It's going to be just another nail in the coffin that is F1. At least some drivers speak up against it.

Lewis isn't the only one against it.

Honestly I feel this Halo design is the FIA trying to shift the blame for Bianchi's crash.
As Justin mentioned, it's partly because of the disregarding of a yellow flag. This is something that's been going on for years now but the FIA and it's stewarts failed to act on it properly.

At the same time, when there are 2 drops of rain they start behind the safetycar because rain is dangerous but when they actually should have deployed the safetycar they failed to do so.

Instead of addressing the real problems they come up with a device that will bring another level of false sense of safety. Eventually someone will crash again in such a fashion that nothing could have saved him but the FIA will probably knee-jerk again and take it's insanity to the next level.

The real cause was the FIA ignoring the blatant risk of having heavy machinery close to the racing surface. It had been pointed out as a massive risk by many people may years prior (Martin Brundle being particularly vocal about it after nearly hitting one at the same corner in 1994 - he ended up hitting a marshal) yet nothing was done about it.

The FIA report into the accident was a white-wash and, according to them, the only person to blame was Bianchi.

Didn't it almost happen at Interlagos in 2003 as well? A lot of drivers went off in the same corner, even Montoya and Schumacher, and I think there was a close encounter with a crane that day as well.

What would happen if the halo breaks off and enters the cockpit? Carbon Fiber is sharp as hell

Just ask James Hinchcliffe!!!

Whitewashing Bianchi's part is just as silly. It's like blaming the FIA for the concrete wall at the Tamburella corner in 94. Yellows were ignored, which is a fact. The fact that the fia still doesnt do anything about it, that is where you can hang the fia.

Lewis seems unwilling to speak his mind. What a bad boy.... I long for Irvine and Villeneuve.

I wholeheartedly agree on the first part, but about Lewis: http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/hamil ... ry-677229/

I'm not white-washing Bianchi at all - he should have, just as every other driver should have, slowed considerably through a double-waved yellow sector. But again, this is something that wasn't really enforced by race control. I'm not saying he was blameless at all. The FIA, however, should shoulder more of the blame.

Who wants to sacrifice a couple of seconds to slow for a yellow flag?

So what has Indycar's and their driver's reactions been? Are they calling for the halo, because it would most certainly apply more to their series than F1.

Didn't they just shrug their shoulders and go 'oh well the sport is dangerous, we can't make it 100% safe unfortunately'?

Or sentiments to that effect?

It's not like there's been a spate of fatalities caused by people being hit on the head by debris in Indycars, only what one death and one disability in the last how many years? 20? When you have people being killed every other week, then there's fundamental problem that needs fixing, when it's once a decade, it's bad luck and no amount of regulation, other than banning the sport completely, will ever eliminate that bad luck element.

Well Allmendinger's stated he won't drive an open cockpit car again.

I think Indycar would look at a closed cockpit rather then a halo. You can introduce a closed cockpit and not increase the danger, you might just require the cockpit to be a little wider like the Delta Wing.

My hope if the biggest open wheel series (F1, Indycars) decide to go the closed cockpit route, someone else comes along with a proper open wheel series and just kicks their asses. V10/V12s, beautiful cars, great and challenging tracks. There is a market for pure, manly open wheel racing and especially F1 does everything to widen this gap. Fans turn away from F1, but they lust for something. So I hope it's only a matter of time until someone comes up with an alternative series. Mr Mateschitz maybe?

Ian this has been my exact stance on it all along. Glad someone else agrees with me. I have no problem with the the halo if it is a common occurrence through all open wheel series but it just simply isn't. They are freak occurrences.

On a side note, will the FIA insist that all forms of open wheel racing that fall under its umbrella have the concept compulsory? ie GP2, GP3, F3 etc. Because if not that is just reckless and down right hypocritical.

what's the best way to upload a video if I don't have a server? It's not long, but it shows the sound difference.

Let's see if this works.

Note how the Toro Rosso and the RedBull pass by at normal sound, and then hear the high pitch of the Mercedes
https://vid.me/ejDL

It was like this for 10 laps, and then it suddenly was over.

A car had already crashed on the river of water. Bianchi had already slowed considerably compared to previous laps, and no one will ever know if his visor was steaming up/radio messages were working or if there was a lot more water in that point right at that moment etc.

The fact is sutil had a survivable crash there not 1 minute before and the only thing that changed that from being a normal accident to a fatal one was the presence of the tractor.
Victim blaming in this situation is misdirection.
By your argument bianchi was deserving of a time penalty in that race or perhaps a grid penalty for the next one.
The FIA's lack of action on that day meant he didn't get that chance.

As for the Cockpit Halo, I firmly believe it will save many future driver's lives by making the cars look so ugly, no one will watch, therefore there will be no money left to run the sport any more, improving F1's safety record immensely when no-one is risking their life to take part.

I'm all for improved safety but not changing the fundamental formula of the sport.

_________________
RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

Final day of testing:

SSN Reports:
[dailymotion]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3vw1jz_barcelona-test-2-day-4-ssn-reports_sport[/dailymotion]

Paddock Uncut:
[dailymotion]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3vwdwl_barcelona-test-2-day-4-paddock-uncut_sport[/dailymotion]

Ted's notebook:

Thanks for all your uploads the last 2 weeks. It was like having sky sports watching your videos on the ps4 dailymotion app