Cover the wheels up(for safety) and you have a Lemans car with a spec engine. This is really getting silly. Leave them open and reinforce the lip of the cockpit screen instead. Tom Tanner/Ferrari Expo 2012-Chicago March 2012
Come on Andreas, this type of response only comes up when you realize you do not have a strong argument. If there is a way to eliminate danger, do it. I do not buy the thinking that you will not be able to see the drivers. With the current design, they sit so low all you can see is their helmets. I can see the pilot of a fighter jet as they taxi, so the technology is there to make canopies clear as thin air. Besides, if I consider not being able to see the driver's helmet vs one more step to driver safety, my response would not require a second thought. Protect the driver. I enjoy motor sports not because I recognize a driver's helmet, but because of competitive racing. I recognize their car, so I know who is behind the wheel. I couldn't see, actually did not look for the helmets of Donohue while racing against Parnelli in the old TransAm, and that was great racing. I can't see Tony Stewart's helmet, or Gordans, etc, as they race by'side by side, but I sure enjoy those close finishes. The romanticism of the death wish of motor sports being acceptable is outdated and hopefully soon long gone.
An F1 design study from a couple of years ago. Canopy would actually look good on this design: Image Unavailable, Please Login
With all due respect Ron, I think your argument is the one that is lacking substance: 1 accident in 10 years is reason enough for the safety folks to make a radical change to the very basic formula of Formula 1? That to me is pathetic. If there was one head injury per year then I would understand this investigation, but not given the extreme rarity of these circumstances. There are lots of other things that cause accidents including injuries and nobody cries Wolf over those. That said in the PC times we live in, I'm sure the safety crowd will eventually win and these canopies will happen. Just as the wheel coverings will eventually come and at that point we can call it Group C racing and simply not care about the sport anymore.
Cars will not need drivers soon anyway ... tears will flow on that day, at least from this car enthusiast. How can we keep taking away things that bring enjoyment to ourselves for the sake of technology? Pete
The tech exists today to not need drivers onboard now. If planes can fly by remote or even just onboard digital flight plans, well, the driver is pretty much redundant. Think about this for a moment. If the risks were unacceptable, we'ed hear it from the drivers FIRST. If these guys(like Soldiers, for example) were not willing to accept the current risks and possibly DIE for the sport/job they love, they would not be out there. Plain and simple. Sounds a bit cavalier, but it is not. As long as drivers are onboard and crowds CLOSE to the action, it is and ALWAYS will be D A N G E R O U S. And that is a BIG part of the appeal of it. Racing without the danger is called Track & Field. Does not mean we should not make auto racing as safe as possible, but not so much as to lose the essence of the sporting event.
+1 I still don't get it why we even talk about canopies: This is a "solution" looking for a problem. From my somewhat limited memory of the history of F1 I can think of about 3 incidents where a canopy might have made a difference. That doesn't even begin to stack up to all the other root causes of deaths and injuries which were made preventable with things like seat belts, fire extinguishers, cf cockpits etc.
Commercial Jets have had the ability to take off, fly and land by themselves for decades, yet there is still a full crew in every cockpit. The driverless car should arrive right after the viable flying car for the masses goes on sale, right around the 32nd of Nevertember.
That´s because the roof casts a shadow in the interior. With an open or transparent roof, the only problem would be reflections on the glass. Still, I don´t buy this argument of the lack of visibility. Would you aproove the return of lower cockpits like in the 70s and 80s just to have a better view of the driver? On the other hand, and putting things in perspective, I think that there are more important things to enhance safety than the canopy; i.e: they should find a way to keep the wheels attached to the car after a crash. Despite the wires they use now, I still see too many lost wheels flying around there after a crash.
Why have an anachronism like drivers? Why not just run the cars by remote control from the VIP suites above the pits? You could have the World Championship of Thumbs.
Canopies will diminish the visibility of the helmets. And for what? What is the problem? To answer your other question: yes
