Ricciardo: Rain and oil no problem for canopy (Update)
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| Ricciardo says visibility not a problem and tearoffs and Rain X will take care of maintaining visibility |
Ahead of his first lap with Red Bull's aeroscreen, Daniel Ricciardo said the device has no major impact on his line of vision.
Ricciardo has already had a feel for the device having spent some time in his RB12 fitted with the aeroscreen in the team's garage on Thursday afternoon.
"First impressions it seems okay," he said.
"Basically the part of the structure is in line with the mirrors, where the mirror structure is, so it does not really block any more vision than what we do have already with the mirrors, and the front is pretty open.
"You obviously have the structure of the top but that is pretty high and out of your eye line anyway. It is one of those things that you definitely put it on track and check, because things change when you move. It is easy to sit in the garage with it, but so far the impression is that it should be okay visibility wise."
The 26-year-old also downplayed concerns about how the aeroscreen will cope with rain or oil on the track.
As he pointed out, other series deal with it so tear offs or Rain X could both be used to keep the screen clear.
"That is something I asked about. A quick one for now is that during pit stops you will have a tear off system, NASCAR has something similar.
"Then you can get these coatings on the screens, I guess it works a bit like in the rain with the visor, you have the Rain X or whatever, and the stuff just floats off.
"So oils and things like these get dispersed quite quickly, say have stuff like this, so there are few short-term things right now which will be used tomorrow if needed."
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04/28/16 Red Bull's Formula 1 aeroscreen design is ready for its trial run in Russian Grand Prix free practice. As the cars unloaded in Sochi Thursday the canopy was on Daniel Ricciardo's RB12 in its garage. The Australian was seen practicing getting in and out with the screen attached.
"In FP1 I will do an installation lap with it," said Ricciardo at Sochi on Thursday.
"I'm sure I will get a lot of TV time in the first two minutes of the session!"
"It will be nice to see how it looks and how it is for the drivers," said Felipe Massa, who was severely injured years ago by a flying suspension piece and almost lost an eye.
"It's nice that you see teams trying to help give some ideas and it's important for us to get the best idea for the future to improve even more safety.
"There are so many things that are important to understand – we need to do all the tests to see if it's comfortable, the feeling, how the wind will come for the driver."