McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe believes that protective cages are an inevitability in F1, and could be in place as early as 2014.
The sport has always been an ‘open-cockpit’ formula, but after yesterday’s collision at Spa, talk of rethinking safety measures has surfaced.
A coming together between Lewis Hamilton and Romain Grosjean sent the McLaren across the top of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari, narrowly missing the Spaniard’s head.
“I think 2014 is intended, as we started the project a year ago,” Lowe, who has been involved in work on the cockpit project, told Autosport.
“Personally I think something is inevitable because it is the one big (safety) exposure that we have got.
“You see it time and time again and think ‘that was lucky’. One day it won’t be lucky.
“At the same time it is an open cockpit formula so we have to protect that, but it should be technically possible one way or another.”
The open design to the driver’s section of the car is a hallmark of F1, and Lowe has confirmed that an open cage has been tested.
“We have made a test piece and it has been tested structurally with various impacts, like firing wheels at it, and that was successful,” he said.
“So we understand some of the parameters in terms of the angles that are needed and the strength of the pieces. The work that is currently in progress is assessing its visibility, and we’ve done some work on the simulator with our interpretation.
“Ideally a driver wants nothing in the way, but in the same way as you drive a road car or even the old VW camper van with the centre pillar, you just get used to it don’t you? We found that as long as the pillars don’t get too big it is something you can get used to.
“So we have some parameters about pillar size, and now we are looking at making something with that pillar size and to the right strength requirement.”
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