I'm not exactly a professional but I've been round a few tracks and that would destroy my ability to drive properly. Even too much rollcage down the A pillars is distracting, I can't even imagine this. Are there any POV shots?
And I'll be honest, F1 has never really excited me, apparently I'm supposed to like it because I'm a geek, but all the marginal gains stuff just doesn't translate to a spectator sport for me. But at least a mild chance of death helped a little.
I know a helmet cam isn't 1:1 with the eye or FOV but....fucking hell. It entirely blocks the apex for a good portion of a turn. I've not really been keeping up on this, but are drivers not livid?
>>4106 I don't get why the "bar" is in the middle - you would have thought the F1 brain-boxes could have at least come up with a design that had two "bars" either side. I get the safety bit, but if you're going to have that monstrosity you might as well go the whole hog and have some sort of bubble enclosure. Would bug the shit out of me if that was a road car.
>Would bug the shit out of me if that was a road car.
I've had a split screen VW and a Landy series two, both have splitscreens and they're fucking annoying enough, and that's just a bar to the left of you. I can't even imagine driving with that halo in front of me, let alone professionally, at their level.
Like you say, how on earth is that the best solution? The only good thing about F1 is the engineering. This might as well be welded on by a bloke called Gary who charges you less if you pay him cash.
Because that single lense camera gives a false perspective of what the driver is actually seeing. Unless you're unlucky enough to only have one eye, what you're seeing at all times is two images merged together (don't think about that too hard, that's how you become boss eyed). This means anything close and in between your eyes is sort of being bypassed by whatever you're focusing on, so if you put your finger pointing up just in front of your nose and try reading this post, your finger just turns into semi-visible blur, that's kind of what the Halo looks like while driving, allegedly. Another thing to remember is that you aren't always looking straight ahead anyway in a racing car, you're looking into the corners, so two big struts either side would actually be much more of a nuisance, because they'd stop you seeing the apex, and you wouldn't be able to look beyond them like you can with the central pillar. In my opinion the Halo's far from perfect, but if their has to be some kind of safety rig around the driver's noggin, better it than some kind of monstrosity like we have here >>4109
Here's a bloke with several thousand pounds of make believe racing gear testing out the Halo in 3D VR.
I get what you're saying, you'd look past it most of the time, but I bet
>semi-visible blur
Would still be a bit of a nuisance at F1 speeds. I'm sure you get used to it but I'd hate to end up focusing on it for even a split second. I suppose I do know what you're saying about the two pillars thing, but having driven heavily rollcaged cars that's also something you can work around.
Why do you reckon a fully enclosed cockpit is more of a monstrosity, though?
I'm no evangelist of the Halo, I just think too many people took one look at it and never considered it beyond "get that ugly shite off my F1 car". Frankly I like how alien F1 cars look right now, but sure I'm in the minority by a long way. As for the "blur", I did read a real F1 driver say that it can be annoying when you're rapidly looking from one side to another, so it's still a minor issue at the very least.
As for the enclosed cockpit, I just think that's fundamentally un-Formula 1. If you close the cockpit it's basically going to become an open wheeled LMP1 series, raced over much shorter distances than proper LMP cars. It doesn't help that that particular mock-up looks like a naff Hot Wheels car. If F1 is about pushing racing car technology to the absolute limit, I don't think a windscreen is really in keeping with that philosophy either, someone needs to have a better idea that the Halo, or the teams should be allowed to modify the Halo in some way so it doesn't look so peculiar.
>that particular mock-up looks like a naff Hot Wheels car
It barely looks any different to a current F1 car to me.
I get what you're saying about the LMP1 thing, sort of - but if there's a big giant halo essentially enclosing the cockpit you might as well put a screen in there too. Put fancy F1 HUD shite on it or something (alright that's a terrible idea but whatever)
Anyway I really don't have a dog in this fight, my idea of a good race is bikes or touring cars.
Formula 1 cars already looked fucking weird when I was a lad, but at least you could sort of see how that had developed over the years from those original 50s cars with the cylindrical bodies, massive engines and fuck all else.
But after all these years how come they are still open cockpit? Have they just been designing them that way by tradition? Surely the aerodynamics would improve a long way if you put a bubble around the driver, this halo thing just seems like an extremely contrived solution.
>>4118 Similarly, if the UCI didn't get their tape measures out competition tier bicycles (and by extension, road bikes) might start looking like this.
I was just thinking it may make more sense to have a person laying flat. In fact, is there a motorcycle design of this type? The obvious element of danger is increased, but on the other hand, you would feel like a superhero.
Watch the helmet camera video and you'll see that an F1 driver is almost always looking sideways to the next corner entry, apex or exit. Putting the bar smack in the middle is actually the least obtrusive place from the driver's perspective.
They tested bubble windscreens, but it distorted the view and gave everyone motion sickness. A bubble screen offers much less protection, because polycarbonate is far weaker than carbon fiber.
The head-first position is an eccentric effort by Graeme Obree; the vast majority of properly quick bikes have a recumbent rather than prone position. The absolutely fastest position is to sit backwards and pedal the rear wheel (it allows for a more streamlined fairing design), but it's not particularly practical for racing. I've owned a couple of lowracer recumbents and they're a joy to ride - as comfortable as an old armchair, but faster than the most hardcore TT bike.
An adjustable headrest is available if you need it. With the right seat angle, your head balances quite comfortably without any support. The seating position of a lowracer recumbent is remarkably similar to that of an F1 car - it's the best compromise between ergonomics and aerodynamics.