Would a covered cockpit have helped Bianchi ?

[turbof1]

Possible. Though the role hoop is sticking out quite a bit, meaning it easily got grabbed by the fence. A canopy on the other hand is round everywhere, difficult to being grabbed by the fence's wires.

It would taken a lot more energy out of the collision in any case. He could still have died, but does again emphasises the weakness of the head in current open wheel racing.

[siskue2005]

How do lmp1 cars have their camopy? Is the roof metal? Or is it fibre glass?

From the pic above it is solid roof ....a smaller version of that on f1 / Indy car maybe have prevented dan Weldon's death
I am all for a canopy f1 car...all the other cons can be rectified easily

Not something like this, they don't have solid roof....IMO they need solid roof , as they don't need to look up like in a jet



They need something like this, just like the lmp1 car......this maybe have reduced some of the force in JB's accident


This pic speaks volumes, could have prevented Massa ,death of Surtees jr and many other incidents


Could open like this




Or something. Like this f1 boat race



Easy to implement with a solid roof, frankly this the only achilis heal in f1 safety today

[turbof1]

I also don't get why this aesthetically unpleasing. It looks great imo.

[siskue2005]

Exactly, it looks awesome,

Imagine the above car's centre section on the rbr10! That would look great

I will do a photoshop later today and will post it

[FW17]

How do lmp1 cars have their camopy? Is the roof metal? Or is it fibre glass?
http://i.haymarketindia.net/Galleries/2 ... 0Y1958.jpg

LMP has a A-frame as in road cars

[FW17]

Just a question

Why does fia and not the teams doing the research on canopies? It has been 6 years now and they are still on it......

[GitanesBlondes]

To answer the original post: no it would have made no difference.

To everyone else, just remember, if closed cockpits become a reality, don't be shocked when you see guys engaging in further reckless behavior as they will believe absolutely nothing can hurt them any longer on track.

[Moose]

God that argument is ridiculous. It's the same argument as "we should teach our children abstinence, because if we teach them about safe sex they'll just go out and have loads of sex", or "we shouldn't vaccinate against HPV because it'll make people feel like it's safe to have unprotected safe, and go out and get other STDs".

It's a patently ridiculous argument.

[Hail22]

The FIA have been testing canopy solutions for a while now, I believe someone on F1T posted this exact video (albeit the video title has been changed and re-uploaded by another user on Youtube) in 2012 after the Alonso incident in SPA.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dywwmmk0xy0[/youtube]


There are a few solutions that seem to tick the box, others that are quite radical and would need changes such as, cockpit ventilation / air conditioning in hot climates, condensation during wet conditions which would call for heating elements, an emergency exit feature etc.

[GitanesBlondes]

God that argument is ridiculous. It's the same argument as "we should teach our children abstinence, because if we teach them about safe sex they'll just go out and have loads of sex", or "we shouldn't vaccinate against HPV because it'll make people feel like it's safe to have unprotected safe, and go out and get other STDs".

It's a patently ridiculous argument.

You must not be watching the races then because as safety become more prominent in F1, what I saw was a tremendous increase in unsafe driving maneuvers. You didn't see a lot of this stuff many years ago because of the risk to both drivers.

Kevin Magnussen running Alonso onto the grass on the Kemmel Straight this season was a great example of where things got to. You think that happens in 1970?

[bdr529]

Let me first say "I'm sure a canopy would help in some cases," but not in the Bianchi crash

I think people are looking at the jet fighter canopy scenario backwards, In this crash Bianchi is the bird not the jet fighter.
The canopy is there to deflect the bird away from the Jet, Now you are asking the canopy to deflect the jet away from the bird and that's never going to happen

[mrluke]

A canopy may have helped to deflect the car away from the crane more / could have prevented the roll hoop catching on the rear buckle.

The sidepod was already lifting the crane off the ground, it could have been enough to make the difference. The wheel above hits the canopy at 205kmh with no visible damage, thats a significant amount of energy.

In 20 or 30 years time f1 cars will have canopies.

If it was allowed within the regulations all of the teams would have one now.

But hey, this is the pinnacle of motorsport so the most important thing is that we make sure cars look the same now as they did 30 years ago.

[Jeffsvilleusa]

It seems like overall the case for a canopy is pretty strong. On the surface it does seem slightly silly that these are the fastest most agile cars in the world and they happen to be convertibles

One thing worth noting is Newey's design for a fantasy F1 car, the X1 (already pictured above by Siskue2005). If anyone knows about F1 design it's him, and he at the least entertains the idea.

[Lycoming]

Ever since Todt got to be in charge, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the FIA institute to accomplish anything.

To answer the original post: no it would have made no difference.

To everyone else, just remember, if closed cockpits become a reality, don't be shocked when you see guys engaging in further reckless behavior as they will believe absolutely nothing can hurt them any longer on track.

By that logic, we should have kept safety regulations like they were when Sir Jackie crashed at Spa and sat in a car with fuel leaking all around him for quite some time before another driver stopped to help him out.

Cause, if you know there was no medical team to help you in case of a crash, you wouldn't engage in reckless behavior, right?

[Ciro Pabón]

This is NOT a Formula One Car