Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W09 launch, Silverstone, 2018

Hamilton has accepted Halo but Wolff wants to take a chainsaw to it

2018 F1 season

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Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff gave very different assessments of the new Halo safety system when asked about it at the launch of the team’s new car.

Asked if he was impressed with what he’d seen of the structure Wolff said he’s “not impressed with the whole thing and if you give me a chainsaw I would take it off.”

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W09 launch, Silverstone, 2018
Pictures: Mercedes W09 launch
“I think we need to look after the drivers’ safety but what we have implemented, this is definitely not appealing,” he continued. “We need to come up with a solution which simply looks better.”

“It’s a massive weight on the top of the car, you screw up the centre of gravity massively with the thing and as much as it’s impressive to look at the statistic that you could put a bus on top, this is a Formula One car, whether you put a bus on top or not.”

However Wolff endorsed the work which had gone in to ensuring Halo offers a step forward for driver safety.

“The FIA has very thoroughly conducted all kind of test and possible scenarios,” he said. “And overall the Halo makes it much more safe for the driver.”

“Where there is scenarios where a drivers is trapped, probably very few scenarios exist, but overall it is safer with the Halo than without the Halo.”

Hamilton, who described F1’s final race without Halo in 2017 as ‘the last time the cars will look good’, said Mercedes had done the best they could to improve the appearance of the device.

“Honestly I think the team have done a great job to integrate it and make it look as nice as it can look,” he said.

“It’s a fact, something we’ve known for some time is coming. It’s the beginning of the season, I think it’s the beginning of the season, I think after a few races we’ll forget it’s even there.”

“We’ll look at the old car and think it’s so dated. This is the new one now, I’m sure it’s only the first step of evolution and development for this safety safety level. But it is heavy, the cars are getting heavier. It’s a big car, but it’s streamlined as much as it can be.”

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2018 F1 season

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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22 comments on “Hamilton has accepted Halo but Wolff wants to take a chainsaw to it”

  1. Hamilton, […] said Mercedes had done the best they could to improve the appearance of the device.

    That is what actually bothers me most. There is nothing refined about any halo solution. The damn thing looks exactly the same as the first time a ‘prototype’ was stuck on a car after the fact for some installation lap. There isn’t even any sort of integration into the cockpit sidewalls. Its in no way well proportioned or integrated into any design. Its just stuck on top of the car in all its dreadfull g(l)ory. ….Member the first halo concept by Mercedes? Sure looks gorgeous now, doesn’t it?

    1. Hm, @mrboerns, when I read this piece, i rather fear that the difference is not about looks – if they cared about looks we would never have had T-Wings, probosics noses, stepped noses, Bus-profile “shark-fins” etc.

      No, I fear that the real issue Mr. Wolff has with the halo is simply in what he says after commenting the looks:

      “It’s a massive weight on the top of the car, you screw up the centre of gravity massively with the thing and as much as it’s impressive to look at the statistic that you could put a bus on top, this is a Formula One car, whether you put a bus on top or not.”

      And that is – it raises the weigth, and the centre of gravity, both hurt performance.

      In other words, a team boss being unhappy with safety devices getting in the way of flimsy cars.

      1. There is a difference between looking aesthetically pleasing or not (your issue) and looking refined/adapted into a car or not (my issue). Also ask kubica about these Cars being flimsy. People Act as if the halo was the only Thing Standing between f1 being totally safe and being a gory bloodrush. Even the fai admitted the halo was less about safety Than it was about the fai Saving Face

  2. No this is one thing I for one will never get used to and will vote with my cash.

    #FormulaStupid

  3. Hamilton is a legendary driver but I disagree with his view point on just about everything.

    1. @twentyseven

      What – you do not think the cars are heavy enough?

      You want more weight perhaps and particularly if it’s up high?

      There is another class of racing you should watch!

      Honestly – do people ever think before they write on here…

      1. They were Wolff’s points, not Hamilton’s.

  4. I still am not sold on the halo. It is hard enough getting out of a car the way it was. All it will take is one fatality from a driver unable to extricated from a crash due to the halo, to rethink the ‘safety’ beyond the aesthetics.

    1. Have you tried getting out of one these cars both with and without the halo?

  5. This team, this car and this driver will dominate the 2018 season. As for Toto wanting to chainsaw off the “bridge” tell him l fueled up the chainsaw….

  6. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
    22nd February 2018, 17:21

    For want of a better term……the inner child in a lot of F1 fans has just been killed. Can’t see many kids drawing these monstrosities on their school textbooks.

    As an 11 year old boy, would ‘THIS’ F1 have drawn me in the way I was in 1997. I suspect not.

    1. I totally agree with you although a few weeks ago I promised myself I wouldn’t complain about the halo. As for Hamilton saying we won’t notice it in a few races time, are they taking it off after a few races or something?

      1. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
        22nd February 2018, 18:43

        Haha I said the same thing as well @canadianjosh but now it’s car launch time all I can see is the damn halo!

  7. MARK MY WORDS CAREY “Halo is the new meme” MARK MY WORDS CAREY

    1. LOL!

      F1: Liberty’s ‘Halo’ brand

  8. #ChainsawsForToto
    I hope Toto Wolff will be receiving dozens if not hundreds of chainsaws between now and FP1 in Melbournce, 28 days from now).

  9. Cue anti-halo vocal minority

  10. Call it a Bridge not a Halo. Halos are a circular in shape. Technically its not a halo but a bridge. A span that connects two points and is usually supported by columns. Call it what it is “A Bridge”.

    1. It looks like a thong

  11. In today’s article toto wolff is angry that the halo increases the center of gravity of the car by at least 5 millimeters and adds 5 kilograms of weight. In other news toto is happy that f1 uses expensive hybrid engines that weight about 100kg more than the previous v8 engines and make the cars longer than the london bus.

    Let’s take a quizz. Which car has longer wheel base? 2018 f1 car or 2013 Rolls-Royce Ghost Extended Wheelbase model with a wheel base of 3,465 mm?

    Here are some links.
    Picture of the rolls:
    https://img.odometer.com/filter:scale/slides/4/1/1/5/9/8/4115989900/2168550f457d3e9f935920501ce00ec2b5f6c34e.jpeg?mw=615
    F1 wheelbases:
    https://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25999

    1. @socksolid: Are you saying Rolls Royce is coming to F1 in 2021? I knew it!

      F1: The Pinnacle of Stretch Limo Racing.

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