F1's Halo Can Take "Roughly The Weight Of A London Double Decker Bus"
Whether or not you like the way F1’s new ‘Halo’ safety device looks (and we’re guessing most of you are in the ‘not’ camp), there’s no denying it’s an impressive piece of kit.
In this video James Allison - Mercedes F1’s Technical Director - explains what the Halo does, and there’s one particularly interesting takeaway: the titanium device can apparently withstand “roughly the weight of a London double decker bus” sitting on top. If he’s talking about one of the new Routemasters, that’s over 12 tonnes.
That’s because it’s not just about deflecting stray objects that might otherwise strike the driver - Halo also needs to stand up to high-speed, ‘cockpit-first’ accidents like the shocker Fernando Alonso somehow walked away from at the 2016 Australian Grand Prix.
The teams also need to think carefully about how they can mitigate the adverse aero effects of the device’s less than ideal shape. The regulations will allow for small aero parts to be attached to the Halo, to stop turbulent air being ingested by the engine and to avoid it upsetting the rear wing.
Allison also makes the point that nothing remains the same in F1 for long, so who knows, within a few seasons the Halo might be a little easier on the eye…
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
“It looks hideous!” Well, it’s supposed to effectively do the job it was made to do, not just be something you bolt on to your car to look good.
Im waiting for people to talk about if the halo could give the drivers headaches (like that twin window helmet) instead of child-like whining of how silly it looks.
Well it’s already been track tested by all of the drivers and nobody has complained
I think Hammond might need one of these on any car he drives 🤔
I can’t wait to test it out in game, take a look at this awesome expireience:
https://youtu.be/XeNaWGEmIhI
Say it with me : NO HALO NO HALO NO HALO
🤷🏾♂️
I’m not really bothered that they installed a safety device, but I am bothered that they didn’t accept Red Bull’s far better canopy design instead of turning the cars into flip-flops.
Blind spots are bad but infront of you…
Or approximately the weight of an American.
Also, this is not that high as:
Force/weight of bus in newtons = 12.61000 newrins
Weight of a wheel = 40kg
Assuming a car hits the wheel at 200km/hr and the wheel is coming towards the car at a speed of 50km/hr
Then avg change in momentum will be 10 1000 kgm/s.
Depending on how much time this takes and angle + speed of car and tire or wing part this is not much at all. In-fact this is probably not even enough to prevent what happen to justin wilson.
(Also, this is a very rough calculation and assumes that the collisions are elastic)