MOTORSPORT: 'Halo' KO'd, for now at least, but it’s open chatter

Extra cockpit protection for F1 drivers has been knocked on the head for next season, but the drivers and their pit-wall crews will be allowed to talk their heads off during races.

Introduction of the ‘halo’ proposed for Formula 1 cars has been delayed, pending further research and development, while radio communication restrictions have been lifted immediately – meaning from this weekend’s German race at Hockenheim, which will be Daniel Ricciardo’s 100th GP.

Drivers are unhappy about the cockpit protection delay, and that they have had no say in the decision, which four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel has called “quite stupid” and the sport not learning the lessons from deaths and other serious accidents.

“We don’t like the looks of it [the halo], but I don’t think there’s anything that really justifies death. It is up to us to make sure it does happen,” Vettel said.

GP Drivers’ Association chairman Alex Wurz said safety seemed to have come second to business.

While the announcement after last night’s decision was diplomatic, F1 commercial tsar Bernie Ecclestone had told London’s Telegraph newspaper earlier in the week: “They [the drivers] have got a small problem – they don’t own the teams and they don’t own the cars. If they don’t want to drive they don’t have to.”

Other than F1, there’s another big event on in Europe this weekend, the Spa 24-Hour GT race, which V8 Supercar star Shane Van Gisbergen is a chance of winning outright, while three of the 65 cars in the field have Australian drivers.

And the fastest event in the World Rally Championship is on in Finland.

Bernie and drivers on a collision course?
It was F1’s ‘Strategy Group’ – comprising a representative of each of the top six teams, each with one vote, and Bernie Ecclestone and Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) president Jean Todt, with six votes each – that last night scuttled the introduction of the ‘halo’ next season.

The FIA could override the decision and go-ahead on safety grounds, but that seems unlikely – although pressure from the drivers may cause a rethink.

The drivers were told in an FIA briefing during last weekend’s Hungarian GP that the ‘halo’ (initially designed by Mercedes but developed by Ferrari and intended to protect a driver’s head and deflect debris and objects such as bouncing wheels) would increase their chances of survival by 17 per cent.

But Ecclestone told the Telegraph: “We don’t need it because it won’t do any good. It won’t save anybody. And it might be worse if a car tips over with it. It could cause more damage than it’s going to save.”

The statement after the Strategy Group meeting said the ‘halo’ remained “the preferred option” for 2018, “another year of development could result in an even more complete solution”.

That sounds like a hint that the more visually-pleasing Red Bull ‘aeroscreen’, which appeared to have been ruled out several weeks ago, may yet become the preference.

Red Bull Racing principal Christian Horner and Ecclestone have led the opposition to the ‘halo’.

Vettel said “90-95 per cent” of the drivers favoured the ‘halo’, even if they did not like the look of it.

Daniel Ricciardo has been a supporter of “anything that saves at least one life”, but new American team Haas’ two drivers (Frenchman Romain Grosjean and Mexican Esteban Gutierrez) are against it.

BBC chief F1 writer Andrew Benson’s report on last night’s decision had one particularly telling paragraph: “The risk for the sport is that if the halo is not introduced and a driver is seriously injured or killed in the type of accident where it is designed to reduce risks, they would be open to legal action and have problems defending their decisions.”

The IndyCar community in North America has been looking to the FIA and F1 for a lead on cockpit protection, especially as the death of Justin Wilson in the US last year is probably one that may have been averted had there been something like the ‘halo’.

Security at the Sao Paulo home of the 67-year-old mother of Bernie Ecclestone’s third wife was not enough to prevent her being kidnapped this week, with a $50 million ransom demand to him, but in the game of F1 he’s still the big winner.

Not only has Ecclestone stalled the introduction of cockpit protection he sees as unsightly, but the lifting of radio communication restrictions is another victory for him as the promoter of “the show”.

The clamps started last year and recently led to a penalty on Nico Rosberg that demoted him from second to third in the recent British GP for being given too much assistance in dealing with a technical problem in his Mercedes.

In Budapest last weekend Jenson Button was furious that he could not be given advice when his brake pedal was going to the floor.

Now there will be no limitations on messages teams give drivers from the pit wall, other than on the formation lap until the start – precluding advice about clutch-bite points and computer mapping while the cars are on the grid.

“This approach is aimed at providing improved content for fans and spectators, as teams will now be required to provide the commercial rights holder [Ecclestone] with unrestricted access to their radio messages at all times their cars are out of the garage.”

Bernie’s got ’em by the you-know-whats again.

The power gap Renault still has to close
The power unit in Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull RB12 – a Renault, even if it is badged TAG-Heuer – is much better this season than last year, but it’s still 35kW (close to 50hp) down on the benchmark Mercedes in electrical energy output, according to RBR team principal Christian Horner.

The next major upgrade in Renault’s hybrid V6 won’t come until next year, although Horner said there could still be improvement in it over the rest of this season.

“We’re quite confident that there will still be some steps of performance by tidying up what we actually have,” Horner said.

“Our target is to try to go into the [northern] summer break [after Sunday’s German GP] ahead of Ferrari [which is only one point ahead of Red Bull for second place in the constructors’ championship].

“That’s going to be tough. Hockenheim [venue for this weekend’s race] is a track that probably won’t be one of our strongest, but we’re looking forward to it.

“We’re always confident that the second half of the season will be stronger than our first half,” he said.

Ferrari’s technical director, James Allison, has departed the Italian team this week, seemingly headed to Renault. Allison was responsible for the Lotus cars in which Raikkonen’s F1 career was resurrected after his stint in rallying.

Renault bought back the Lotus team at the end of last season to become a fully-fledged constructor again. Allison’s job at Ferrari has gone to Mattia Binotto, who has been with Ferrari for 21 years.

SVG looms large on a world stage
This weekend’s 68th edition of the Spa 24-Hour in Belgium is part of the Blancpain GT Endurance Cup and also the second round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge.

The first round of the Intercontinental Challenge was the Bathurst 12-Hour in February, which New Zealander Shane Van Gisbergen won in a McLaren 650S – entered by Tekno Autosports - with Jonathon Webb and Portugal’s Alvaro Parente.

It was to have been a four-round series, but an American race promptly fell through. The Sepang 12-Hour in Malaysia remains the other race in the series in December.

An announcement on next year’s Intercontinental Challenge is expected tonight at Spa.

Apart from running second to Jamie Whincup in the V8 Supercar Championship, Van Gisbergen has won the first two rounds of the Blancpain Endurance Cup, again in a McLaren 650S, partnered with British driver Rob Bell and Frenchman Come Ledogar.

That trio is together again at Spa, where Van Gisbergen set the pace in night qualifying after Audis and Mercedes had topped the earlier timesheets.

“The Giz” leads the driver standings in both the Intercontinental Challenge and the Blancpain Endurance Cup, while Bell is the overall leader in the Blancpain series – which includes shorter races that Van Gisbergen can’t contest because of clashes with V8 Supercar rounds.

McLaren is represented in GT racing by a customer team called Garage 59, headed by Scotsman Andrew Kirkaldy. Usually it fields two entries, but this weekend a third 650S has been entered in which one of Bruno Senna’s co-drivers will be fellow Brazilian Luis Felipe ‘Pipo’ Derani, a 22-year-old who already has won outright this year America’s Daytona 24-Hour and Sebring 12-Hour.

A dozen of the 65 cars in the Spa field are eligible for points in the Intercontinental GT Challenge.

Australians are in three other cars in the event.

Lago Racing is an all-Aussie entry in the Pro-Am class, with owner Roger Lago partnered by David Russell, Steve Owen and Jonathon Webb in a Lamborghini Gallardo RE-X leaded from Reiter Engineering.

They will start 51st, while a Kessel Racing Ferrari 458 in which Brisbane’s Liam Talbot is one of the drivers in the Amateur Cup has qualified 36th.

Australia’s Nissan GT Academy graduate Matt Simmons, also from Brisbane, is in a factory GT-R that will start 60th.

The top 20 qualifiers will take part in ‘Superpole’ tonight ahead of the race start late Saturday night, Australian time.

One-season V8 Supercar driver Maro Engel is co-driving with the great Bernd Schneider in a Black Falcon Mercedes.

Fast and dirty
It’s Rally Finland weekend. Last year’s was the fastest WRC event in history, with an average speed of 125.44km/h.

The famous Ouninpohja stage – on which cars can be in the air for a total of 30sec because of the jumps – will be run in the opposite direction this time.

Finn Jari-Matti Latvala has won the event the past two years for Volkswagen and will be out to continue the Scandinavian dominance in the event, while his French teammate and triple world champion Sebastien Ogier is a 51 point-leader in the championship, despite not having won in recent rounds – which he and VW blame on the running order.

Hyundai is chasing its first Finnish podium, with New Zealander Hayden Paddon one of its prospects. Injured Spaniard Dani Sordo’s place has been taken by Dutchman, Kevin Abbring.