Canopies like on the Protos or the Brabham are not part of the chassis structure, therefore have purely and aerodynamic function, unlike the "roof" of an LMP1 car which is an integral part of the composite chassis.
I think the car's removable head protection collar will progressively evolve into a full two parts removable bubble, starting with a similar element at the front consisting of a small windscreen and evolving into joining the back one in a two parts front and rear or left and right side plexiglass bubble easily detachable when standing still.
Re: all this talk about egress, doors, and "how does the driver get out if the car ends up upside down?" Can a driver, in fact, crawl out of one of today's open-cockpit cars if it's upside down? Just asking.
The answer and it makes F1 relevant again: 1. Self driving F1 cars. Would be a good platform to develop this technology. 2. Many on this site incorrectly think the Manufacturer's title is more important so finally they get their wish rubber stamped. Self driving is the future of cars so let's make F1 part of it! Pete ps: I will never get into a self driving car or allow anybody to take away my hobby ... but 99% of the population and a few lost souls on this site want it ... WTF!
You don't think it's difficult to completely redesign every structural and functional aspect of a modern F- car? Really? Mark
We are not talking about re-inventing the wheel here, but to adapt an already existing concept (close cockpit LMP) to the specifics of F1. Cars and chassis are redesigned almost every year. This year, for example, engineers had to start with a blank sheet of paper to design chassis suited to the new hybrid power unit. They managed quite well, don't you think? I cannot see why they couldn't do the same if the FIA mandated closed cockpits.
Exactly. So based on the (flawed) reasoning, because in the future most cars will be computer driven, therefore, race cars should be computer driven. Because if it's old, then therefore it's bad. No, F1 cars are not going to have enclosed cockpits because closed cockpits will fundamentally transform F1 cars into something they are not. AND for the third time, an enclosed cockpit doesn't address the root causes of this incident. They are a total distraction made by those who aren't thinking very clearly. -F
Cars evolve every year. What you're talking about is a complete redesign of an F1 car from top to bottom. It's not adopting LMP regs, which are massively different than F1. It would be a complete redesign. Mark
There's a lot of over-reaction to this accident. The big problem here is the car hit a tractor. That's a pretty irresponsible thing to have happen and sits squarely on the shoulders of race management, and was in no way a car design issue. And even though Williams says it is, safety is not paramount. That's a ridiculous, even if merely political, thing to say. If the safety of the drivers is truly paramount we wouldn't let them race. Period. The reality is that safety is important but it doesn't trump the show. And it shouldn't. Enclosed cockpits would be a ridiculous end to the F1 open cockpit era.
Does a roll bar "address the root cause" of a car flipping over? Does a wheel tether "address the root cause" of a wheel becoming detached? Does a HANS device.... Maybe somebody's "not thinking very clearly".
I have never talked about copying LMP regs, but redesigning F1s adopting some of its concepts in terms of structure, packaging, survival cell, etc... The question is this: are we going to work to improve drivers safety in case of accident, or do we maintain the present aspect to keep up with traditions. Whatever protocol the FIA adopt regarding the evacuation of cars off course, cranes on track, yellow flags, safety cars, etc... crashes will still happen from time to time, with caastrophic consequences. The reason for these casualties are analysed and call for action. So, are we complaisant about them, or do we act responsibly instead? Risks that were acceptable 50, 20 or even 10 years ago are not acceptable now.
OK then. The question is how safe can we make F1 cars without changing their basic nature. Once we do that and apply similar changes to procedures and tracks we can decide if that's "safe enough". I hope that we can find away to keep open cockpit (not that what we have now is truly that) racing without putting the drivers at undue (however we chose to define that) risk.
No, they don't. But when those things come into play, a roll bar, a tether, a HANS device, one needs to also look at the root cause of why those devices were needed in each case. Why did the car flip (roll bar)? Why did the wheel become sheered off (tether)? Otherwise the race managers aren't doing a very good job of problem solving. They're just getting distracted which is what is happening here with some people. And in this case, simply going to the covered cockpit route is really missing the main issue here, which frankly is an unsafe way to solve these problems because it masks the real issue (flag marshaling, SC deployment, car removal, racing in the rain, water on the track mitigation, etc.). You know what I mean? -F
I think in Bianchi's case, the problem was the flag shouldn't have been green and in an accident at least one more flag station past the accident should still show yellow. But also think sooner or later there will be some sort of windscreen/frontal protection imposed.
Ten minutes into the first drive of a closed cockpit F1 car, the drivers and engineers would discover they now need A/C. Closing cockpits causes more problems than its worth.
I think the reality is that no feels comfortable looking at Jules as the reason this happened. Honestly, the front loader had nothing to do with this from an errant safety point of view. No one else ran off during the yellow. You don't need to change F1 with cockpits and parachutes, bumpers and all the other ideas. If his car doesn't go off during the double yellow, none of this happens. We're all searching for answers because of how tragic and completely out of the realm of possibility this all seems. It horrible and I want an answer too because I want to believe crazy sh*t like this cant or shouldn't happen. But what if it turns out he was just going too fast for the conditions and the circumstances? Honestly...what happens if it was his fault? I don't know if I want to know that answer. I'm afraid at some point we need to examine the underlying causes or reasons behind him going off. That's where the fix needs to be instead of curing symptoms. Hopefully the telemetry show the real story. I bet if nothing is changed, we'd never see such a freak accident like this again. Anyway... I just hope he's the guy who proves everyone wrong and emerges the guy he was. I just want him to be okay.
The accident wouldn't have happened if he left the track but offs are common to all racing. If we place all the responsibility on the drivers we might as well do away with barriers replace them with attractive stone walls and replant trees.
As I said before when you slow down when driving a car with wings you loose grip. They are safer going fast not slow. Witness the driver who spun off at the beginning of the race behind the safety car. It is possible that Bianchi lifted too much and acquaplaned. I do not believe the 218km/h speed that has been quoted as his speed. Even in the dry they would not be going that fast at that position of the track. The fault is with the tractor being on the wrong side of the fence, not with Bianchi loosing control. Yes without the tractor he would have hit something hard but he would not have submarined. If driving race cars was easy, we all would be F1 drivers ... Maybe his throttle stuck open ... ?? Pete
You mean like Sochi? Plenty of concrete at the edge of the track. Or Monaco? Armco and exposed verticle curbs.
F 1, and Indycar for that matter, is rooted in being an open wheel, open cockpit car. There are inherent dangers in that, although those have, thankfully, greatly diminished over the decades. To change those two parameters would remove the links to the past. A closed F 1 car would be a just like Delta Wing (the closed cockpit version) with a wider front track. Anyone want to see that? Hell No! Look what has become of Indycars with their clumsy and cartoonish rear wheel treatment ... they look like glorified bumper cars and not upper echelon racers. F 1 and Indycars are like fighter jets in that a large part of the sell is that they APPEAR to be lethal. The fact that they occasionally ARE lethal is the tragic part of the sport, but it is inevitable. Don't forget that if everyone could drive these cars with no consequences then we wouldn't bother to watch. Make the safety procedures better, but don't screw with the fundamentals of the sport.
