AR1.com’s cries for canopies on F1 and IndyCars finally being heard (2nd Update)
Dear Joyce: Without a canopy on the car, the driver will die instantly. It happened to 1964 F1 World champion John Surtees' son Henry at about 100 mph in an F3 car. He died within an hour. At 200 mph the driver would die instantly. A similar outcome to the driver's head hitting a fence post, which has happened many times resulting in death. Not having a canopy over the driver's head is simply playing with fire. It's OK until you get burnt, then everyone sheds tears and asks why did this have to happen? It doesn't. Mark C.
10/07/14 Williams Performance Dir Rob Smedley added that if the FIA demands closed cockpits, "the sport's engineers can provide — and quickly." The FIA "has already conducted tests and concluded that canopies along the lines of jet fighters will work."
10/07/14 AR1.com has campaigned for canopies on F1 and Indycars for over 5 years. We have been staunch supporters of the idea. Recently Derrick Walker said IndyCar was looking at them for their next generation car.
In light of the Jules Bianchi accident in Japan Sunday, the F1 community is now crying for canopies. Too late for Bianchi we're afraid.
Williams' Rob Smedley has told Autosport that from a technical point of view, closed cockpits could be implemented rather simply to Formula One cars.
"From a technical point of view it's something very easy to implement," Smedley said. "It's something that we've looked at in lots of the technical working group meetings and we've been back and forwards."
Such an actual change would need to go through several levels of deliberation and discussion by those groups involved in the sport before being implemented. Alexander Wurz, head of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, has warned against knee-jerk reactions.
Aesthetics would change, but Smedley said that's been constant throughout F1 since the first season in 1950.
