Safe you, Safe me

Last week we were reminded yet again of how important the halo device has been to the safety of F1 drivers.  

The sight of Zhou upside down at speed left a tight knot in the pit of our stomachs which was thankfully untied when it was announced he was OK.  

We covered how we felt watching that unfold in the latest podcast episode so go check that out if you haven't already.

Right, back to this weeks blog.

Watching the halo do it's thing made me wonder just how far thing have come since the sport started.

It didn't take much research on the old world wide web before I discovered just how much more there was in the field of Formula 1 safety than I had first realized.

F1 cars, and in fact F1 in general, have come a long way in the ongoing balancing act of making driving cars at very high speeds in a competitive setting thrilling to watch, something for the elite drivers of the world only, yet also something that does not come with the inherent risks to human life as it did when it all started back in 1950.

As I still have fuel in the time machine from last week's time hopping to look at British F1 involvement, we'll fire it up again and peruse the world of F1 safety evolution.  

Let's key in the date of the first F1 race at Silverstone and wander through the major milestones in F1 safety.

Time for 88mph...

Right, arriving back in 1950 we are met with an F1 world where cars are designed for one thing, and one thing only; speed.

I feel the need...

Helmets are optional and some drivers prefer a cloth cap!

The only thing that kinda resembles an element of safety concerns is the presence of marshals.  Yes, these volunteers that are essential to running a race have been present since the first F1 race.  

The unsung heroes of F1

Three cheers for Marshals everywhere as despite all the improvements we are about to review, we still need these folk to make a race weekend happen.

To be honest it's pretty slim pickings for the rest of the 1950s as the only thing that happens is that helmets become compulsory from 1952 although the first ones were cork & cloth.  

Not really sure these would actually do much more than the cloth only caps but it was still a move in the right direction.

Fangio sporting the helmet of the era

At the end of the decade we see the sport move to steel based helmets although visors are still a futuristic idea at this point so goggles are the fashionable eye protection of the day.

Punching in 1961 on the time machine and the sport started to push for higher standards of safety and roll bars/hoops are introduced.  

1961 Ferrari with roll hoop

Hot on their heels are mandatory overalls from 1963 but at this point they do not have to meet any fire retardant tests.

The nineteen seventies then sees a raft of changes sweep through the sport.  

In 1970 the fans have to be at least three meters away from the track and this is  enforced by a separation wall.  

The rollout of fire resistant materials such as Nomex in the late sixties sees the sport adopt these materials as compulsory in overalls by 1975. 

Science and stuff

This material was unknown to me so I took a few moments to investigate.

For the chemists out there, according to Wikipedia (dangerous I know), Nomex is  related to nylon, but has aromatic backbones (these sound nice), and is more rigid and more durable.  It's most beneficial feature is that it has excellent thermal, chemical, and radiation resistance. It can withstand temperatures of up to 370 °C.  It is commonly used in the fabrication of firefighting equipment.

Unfortunately many of the ideas for safety are borne out of lessons learned from accidents. 

Jochen Rindt’s accident in Monza in 1970 leads to the sport adopting the six point safety harness to prevent drivers from being thrown out of their cars.

Might resemble Dr Octopus but it's hugely important

In 1979 the cockpits are widened so that a driver could escape more easily in case of an accident.

As we arrive in 1980, the sport has been going for thirty years yet many of the features we see today are still a long way off from their introduction to the sport.

However, one major innovation was about to make it's debut.

One of the biggest safety features that most fans can usually name is the survival cell or monocoque (which in French means single shell).  

Rolling out in 1981 is the carbon fiber version of this structure.  However, it wasn't unilaterally embraced by everyone at first and it took a single team to innovate and become trailblazers in order to get everyone to sit up and take notice.

1981 McLaren monocoque
Photo from Motorsport.com

McLaren had been working the idea for a while and they introduce the concept in their 1981 MP4/1 car.  

The carbon fiber idea is being dismissed by other teams at this time as they prefer their aluminum shells.

The car that McLaren unveil has a monocoque made from just five parts (compared to over 50 for the equivalent aluminum shell) and is an ingenious combination of carbon fiber with an aluminum honeycomb embedded within it.  This allows for other elements of the car to be mounted to it without compromising the structural integrity.

If we jump forward to the British GP that year, a win for John Watson gets the rest of the pit lane talking about this new design with respect to the speed gains.

One more leap in the timeline to the Italian GP that year see two concepts married together; speed and safety.  

While this new car is quick, a huge crash for Watson sees the rear end fully ripped off the car.  It is widely accepted that had that car been constructed in the conventional manner the outcome would have been much worse.

Now the whole sport can see that, not only is this revolutionary design potentially much quicker, it's also a huge step forward in safety.

All teams follow suit and by the end of the decade there are strict testing regulations that govern this structure to ensure it's integrity during a crash.

Pushing on we arrive at the nineties and a whole of host of new features and stricter testing standards start to appear.

The decade opens with the dawn of larger wing mirrors, detachable steering wheels, and mandatory safety/rescue training for drivers.

1991 mandates a new set of tests for roll bars, seat belts, and the survival cell while the following year sees the rollout of specific regulations for the usage of the safety car.  Prior to this the safety car was sporadically used.

1994 introduces a pit lane speed limit for all sessions after they had been introduced for practice sessions in 1993.  The limit is set to 80km/h but there is a provision for the race director to vary it based on specific circumstances at each venue.

Almost a crawl....for an F1 car!

Following the death of Senna many circuits are redesigned to remove the higher speed corners.  In fact 27 corners are designated as corners that had to be modified.

Side impact tests were added in 1995, headrests in 1996, and then 1997 sees the era of technology start to make an impact as accident data recorders are added to cars to assist in the analysis of accidents.  

These are essentially like the black boxes on aircraft and allow huge amounts of data for various measurements to be captured.

The black box of F1 cars

As we head towards the end of the decade, new tests are introduced that require the driver to be able to detach the steering wheel, exit the cockpit and reattach the steering wheel, all within ten seconds.

A small hop to 1999 in our time machine takes us to another big development in the construction of an F1 car.

While many people are taking steps to prepare for either the Y2K bug or the mother of all New Year's Eve parties, F1 was not done with it's safety crusade and 1999 ushered in the era of wheel tethers.  

Wheels on a leash

These are the devices attaching wheels to the chassis so that they do not get thrown from the car during a crash. We had seen some scary incidents in previous years where wheels had come free and spun off towards other drivers and/or spectators at alarming speeds.

The new millennium starts without the technology nightmare predicted by many (and cashed in on by many an IT consultant!), but over in the world of F1 they are busy ensuring the carbon fiber cockpits are now at a minimum thickness of 3.5mm.

Tragedy involving marshals in 2001 & 2002 hit by wheels leads to the number of tethers required increasing to two per wheel.

In 2003 a device not named after a Star Wars character is introduced to increase support for the head.  

The HANS (Head And Neck Support system) stabilizes the drivers head & neck during an accident, preventing the full range of motion that would normally throw the head fully forward without such a device.

The Solo, sorry, the HANS

Those wheel tethers get another revision in 2005 as they now need to withstand forces up to six tons while wings and other aerodynamic elements of the car have to use extra hard Kevlar.

A year later F1 starts experimenting with the use of Tecpro barriers.  These plastic block structures are shown to absorb 40% more energy than the traditional tire based barriers.

Tired of the old style barriers

A scary incident involving a loose spring component puncturing Felipe Massa's helmet sees the introduction of a Zylon strip to create an overlap between the visor and the rest of the helmet.  This is a material with huge tensile strength used in ballistic armor and considered one of the most durable created by man.

Can you point to the strip for me please?

More technology enters the car and this time it enters the drivers themselves! Accelerometers are added to the drivers earpieces and give valuable data on the head movements seen during an accident.

In 2015 the Zylon material is also used to line the inside of the cockpit in a bid to make the cockpits resistant to ballistic shards that may be involved in a crash - yes, the cars are being designed to be literally bullet proof!

Not for TV or taking selfies, in 2016 the cars are fitted with driver facing cameras mounted within the cockpit to film what happens during a crash.  The cameras record at up to 400 frames a second so that every minute detail can be analyzed.

Smile!

2018 sees the last major structural feature introduced with the halo device being added to the cars and we all saw how that came to Zhou's aid last week.  

Halo device in place

In addition the number of Zylon tethers per wheel are increased again to three.

Sneaking in the back door while the halo took all the attention was something that sounds like it is out of a comic book; Biometric gloves!

Biometric sensors are added inside the gloves in order to be able to transmit readings related to blood oxygen levels and pulse to race control.  

This information is highly valuable when making assessments over how quickly extraction should take place in case of a serious accident.

I am Iron Man

As of 2021 the sport has been trialing improved fire resistant gloves as, while escaping relatively uninjured, Grosjean suffered severe burns to his hands while escaping his crash in the 2020 Bahrain GP.

While this is never going to be a sport with zero risk, it has come a very long way since the days of cloth caps, front mounted engines, and cars designed purely for speed and zero consideration for safety.

The ingenuity that propels safety features forwards continues to impress and thankfully F1 does not seem to be getting complacent as it drives forward with safety at the heart of the sport. 

And yes, that was a Lionel Ritchie based title.  I think it's become a thing now.

Until next time,

Rob