Five years ago, the FIA announced Formula 1 cars would be fitted with a new head protection structure known as the halo. The move was welcomed by some, but support was far from universal.
Max Verstappen called the design “ugly” and that it would “take away some of the passion that F1 is talking about”. Three-times world champion Niki Lauda added it was the wrong decision to have the contraption on the cockpit, and believed there was “100 per cent” better solutions available.
But the FIA, led by then-president Jean Todt, persevered. The sport’s governing body was determined to improve head protection not only at the top of the sport, but throughout it.
Development of the halo had been prompted in part by Henry Surtees’ death in a Formula 2 crash at Brands Hatch in 2009 when he was struct by a wheel. The death of former Formula 1 driver Justin Wilson when he was struck by a car’s nose in an IndyCar race at Pocono in 2015 underlined the need for action.
When halo was introduced, FIA safety delegate Charlie Whiting highlighted the purpose it served. “The halo is there principally to look into the way drivers have been hit by wheels,” he said, “but also where we’ve seen cars in contact with the environment, so to speak: walls, for example. [Marco] Campos in Magny-Cours, Greg Moore in Fontana. Those sorts of things as well.
“It will stop a wheel, It will stop large objects and it will protect the driver against incursion from another car, walls, interaction with tyre barriers, all those things.”
Resistance still followed, but the FIA pushed ahead with their plans and after extensive testing, all cars in F1 carried the halo into the 2018 season. Fast-forward five years to the month, and many near-misses later, acceptance of the halo is universal.
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The year it was introduced, Charles Leclerc praised on the halo after Fernando Alonso’s McLaren went over the top of his car at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix.
At the time Leclerc admitted it “probably helped” save his life. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, who a few months earlier said he wanted to “take a chainsaw” to the halo, said the crash “could have been very nasty” and was “happy that we have the halo.”
Acceptance was not immediate. Verstappen was among those who questioned whether the halo had done anything for Leclerc.
“The car never really virtually drops on top…
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