SAFETY SPECIAL: Halo device
What is the halo’s place in UK motorsport?
Sixteen months is a long time in motorsport, especially for those with short-term memories in a sport which never seems to stand still. For those who may have forgotten, March 25 2018 at the Australian Grand Prix marked the first time the halo head-protection device was used in an Fia-certified motorsport event.
Sitting around the opening of the cockpit, its purpose is to shield the driver from errant debris, and avoid the outcome of accidents such as those suffered by Henry Surtees in
2009 during a Formula 2 race and Justin
Wilson in 2015 during an Indycar race.
At the time of its introduction, it divided opinion. Should this be the direction that singleseaters goes down? Can’t they come up with something more aesthetically pleasing? Will it be up to the job?
As expected, criticism of the device has since waned as the passing of time has allowed fans to become more accustomed to its looks and generally it has now become an accepted part of motorsport.
One thing that should never have been in question, though, was the functionality of the device. Having spent years researching various avenues of frontal head protection, the FIA was confident that the halo was the correct choice having subjected it to rigorous loads.
This included using a wheel assembly propelled into the halo at 225kph (140mph) as the key test which needed to be passed.
It has been designed to withstand a force from the front of 83 kilonewtons (kn) and a lateral load of 93kn – more than car roll hoops have had to withstand in recent years – or the equivalent of 15-times the static load of the full mass of the car.
Its first ‘real-life’ assessment came during a crash between F2 drivers Tadasuke Makino and Nirei Fukuzumi at Barcelona in 2018.
But perhaps its biggest high-profile test occurred during the F1 start collision between Charles Leclerc and Fernando Alonso at Spa that same year, when the latter’s car was launched over his rival.
An investigation by the FIA found that the device had prevented Leclerc’s head from being struck by part of Alonso’s car, and without the halo the outcome could have been very different.
As with the majority of safety features, it has gradually trickled down the motorsport ladder, but how long until it comes into UK national motorsport?
John Ryan, Motorsport UK’S technical director
and vice president of the FIA’S single-seater commission, believes it won’t be long until we see the halo used in Uk-based championships.
“It’s now found its way into F2, F3 as in the new FIA F3, the new Regional F3 also has them fitted, but no F4 has them fitted yet,” he says.
“It was anticipated for this year, but that hasn’t come to fruition. It’s not going to come into fruition for next year and it looks like it’s coming into place for 2021.
“Ideally any safety thing you want to bring in as soon as possible but you have to be practical as well and 2021 is a good time because what we’ve encouraged the FIA [to do] is to actually bring forward the homologation for the new generation of F4 car.
“Retrofitting of the halo onto an existing car would have meant a tub change but wouldn’t have been a new homologation for the car, and there’s a feeling amongst the teams that would be an interim cost step too far.
“So I think universally people accept it’s better to bring out a new homologation, so then we’ve got a long period of life for the car to continue.”
A one-make championship introducing a halo-fitted car at the appropriate time is a logical step, but the problem for UK motorsport arises for more historical multi-marque series such as Formula Ford and Formula Junior.
There are a number of stumbling blocks, primarily cost and practicality. It’s a potential minefield with seemingly no correct answer.
While the current generation of halo has been tested to F1 standards, Ryan believes producing a cheaper alternative could be one solution.
He says: “We have continued to actually stress to the FIA that we should look down that route to come up with a lower cost, lower weight halo for some of the lower formulas to maybe actually test, so they’re not actually going through the same forces as F1 would test.”
It’s new series which are more than likely to feature some form of frontal head protection in the future. “Any new formulas, yes [should have a halo], but any existing formulas I think we would actually have to leave them in their historical format unless a cheap, viable, practical alternative does come to market then we could consider it,” adds Ryan.
“Ten years down the line historical, classical single-seater formulas they will continue as they are. We just need to make sure any modern-day championship does incorporate the highest levels of safety we can offer.
“That would mean any new single-seater category that wants to come to market we would have to seriously consider to mandate upon the use of the halo or something similar.”