The Halo device which has appeared on Formula One cars this year looks little different to the dummy versions which ran on cars in the past two seasons.
But adding the finished product to cars has proved a major challenge for designers. The Halo is designed to withstand a 150kN force – comparable to an African elephant sitting on it – and the points where it meets the chassis have therefore had to be strengthened considerably to meet the FIA’s crash tests.
McLaren passed the crash test of their Halo but “it was close”, admits Morris, “I’m not saying we breezed through it in any way.”
“There were quite a few heart-stopping moments in particular when we were doing the sort of static tests that comes in from an oblique angle. It takes the weight of a London bus, basically. And when you see that test going on it’s pretty scary. The amount of load that’s going in there and everything sort of moving around, which it’s designed to do, it’s a bit scary.”
The FIA confirmed in July last year the Halo would be mandatory from 2018. Morris explained how McLaren went about integrating it to their car.
“It’s been a big challenge,” he said. “The loads are very high, We always knew it was going to be a challenge.”
“We invested some time and money up front to do a lot of test pieces. Obviously you don’t build a complete chassis but we built various test pieces where we had dummy Halos, parts of Halos, full Halos, testing how the interfaces would behave. And we found some issues. But we sort of planned it early enough such that we could react to those issues, catch them in-chassis, which we did.”
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The minimum weight limit has risen again for 2018 to account not just for the weight of the Halo, but the strengthening done to the chassis to ensure it can withstand the forces involved. However Morris says it’s hard to judge how much heavier the chassis is because of the Halo.
“As we do every year we make weight savings so it’s quite difficult to say ‘we’ve added X amount of kilos’. Clearly there is material there, it’s just difficult to know what’s just required for the Halo and what’s normal chassis construction.”
“But it’s been an interesting challenge. We’re all engineers and we love things to be a little bit different. Chassis design over the years has been more and more restricted just through regulation and safety. Actually if you look at everybody’s bare chassis before it’s got any bodywork they’re all very similar. So when you get something new thrown in there the engineers love it because they see it as an opportunity to do a better job than somebody else.”
One key area of difference between the teams could come where the two prongs at the rear of the Halo meet the chassis.
“I think it’ll be interesting to see in particular the rear mounts, how they integrate into the chassis because that is an area that’s down to you how you integrate it, it’ll be interesting to see what versions people have come up with.”
“There’s various ways of putting the structure around that. Maybe we’ll see. Obviously the Halo itself is the same for everybody. You’ve got the allowance of having fairings on it so it might look a little bit different cosmetically.”
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Not much can be done to mitigate the negative aerodynamic effects of Halo but there may be opportunities for teams to use to gain a benefit, according to the team’s head of aerodynamic Peter Prodromou.
“I’m sure there’s going to be a variety of solutions out there. The scope’s quite limited. As you know we’ve got this allowance around the basic shape. It’s quite limited but there is opportunity there.”
One problem the teams will have to manage is how it affects the air flow into the engine.
“I think everyone’s going to be faced with those type of challenges,” says Prodromou, “how it affects flow into the engine, into certain cooling ducts people had in that area, including ourselves. How it affects the flow to the rear wing.”
“But also on the flip side there’s opportunities there to tap into you couldn’t before.”
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Phylyp (@phylyp)
17th February 2018, 13:55
I presume the rear of the halo will mount (indirectly) onto the engine, as that is a stressed member of the chassis. What part does the front of the halo sit on? Is it the survival cell? Have they added a band to it to take (and dissipate) the loads of the halo?
John H (@john-h)
17th February 2018, 14:37
I guess the whole thing mounts to the survival cell. Indeed, it is now _part_ of the survival cell. They won’t be doing any load testing with the engine attached.
Gabriel (@rethla)
17th February 2018, 16:07
Well the article states its up to the teams how they integrate it but who knows what that means without reading a 100pages ruleset.
John H (@john-h)
17th February 2018, 18:50
True. But I’m sure the crash tests will be performed on the survival cell, so how they mount this at the rear of this cell will be interesting. In theory these will go into either massive tension or compression, hence a ring around the cockpit as suggested above would make some sort of sense I guess.
Who knows, I guess we’ll never see what’s under the bodywork anyway.
Matt
17th February 2018, 14:01
A ¨London bus¨ is not a unit of measurement. I realise that it might help some people put the actual number into something relatable but how many people actually know what a London bus weights?
London buses are not a constant weight anyway as they are not identical models but I find it amusing that I had to research how much London Buses weigh in order to arrive at a figure of about 12.65 tons when the guy could have just said 12.6 tons instead of some mumbo jumbo about buses.
IJW (@)
17th February 2018, 14:06
Is that for a single-decker bus or for one of the famous double-decker buses?
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
17th February 2018, 17:25
I’m guessing it’s a single decker without a “tag axle” (i.e. duel wheels at the rear).
Gabriel (@rethla)
17th February 2018, 16:16
Matt you are forgetting that Formula 1 is trying so hard to be accessible because thats why their viewing numbers are falling. Who on earth that doesnt wear a science coat to work knows what 12tons means. A “London bus” or an “African elephant” is common knowledge that all dumb fans can relate to.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
17th February 2018, 18:02
I have a strong suspicion the “dumbing down” of F1 media releases and the removal of technical jargon won’t have a big influence on the decline of F1’s once valued and envied viewers. I cannot think of any words that could explain in a simple and susinct way to those that control the media rights that taxing people to watch races is like being the only dish that carries a charge at an entertainment buffet: your competitors get more customers.
Matt
18th February 2018, 7:42
Well @rethla, Yes I expect that this is the motivation but my point was that those people wont know how much a london bus weighs either, considering that there are so many different models etc…
I really don´t think that using the correct units of measurement is a problem, you have to draw at line at dumbing things down at some point. I would like to see those that can´t get their head around what a ton is be educated instead of pacified.
The real reason that figure that viewers are in decline is because of exclusive pay TV contracts, let´s not kid ourselves.
I look forward to the day in which we can pay a small but reasonable fee for online access to a streaming service without having to take out costly annual subscriptions to linear TV platforms such as Sky.
Until that major issue which threatens the survival of the sport us addressed effectively, referring to ton´s as buses or mm´s as slices of paper will do very little other than confuse the issue by making people think ¨how many mm´s is a slice of paper anyway?¨ or ¨How many oranges would fit inside lewis hamilton if he skipped breakfast?¨
John H (@john-h)
17th February 2018, 18:51
Is that an African or a European swallow?
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
17th February 2018, 20:48
Norwegian Blue.
Sarah
18th February 2018, 7:20
Beautiful plumage
WimB
18th February 2018, 19:29
Don’t mention the tyre war!
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
17th February 2018, 14:05
We’ve lost the monkey seat but gained an elephant seat.
I hope Force India didn’t use an Indian elephant. Had to look it up after reading that stat, and African ones can be much bigger.
Gabriel (@rethla)
17th February 2018, 16:44
I do wonder if it would take one of Hannibals war elephants, they where African after all.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
18th February 2018, 14:38
These whole article comments are puntastic! (read in Indian accent)
Robbie (@robbie)
17th February 2018, 14:49
I’m sure I’ll sound like a broken record here, but I’m glad to finally read a little bit more about the aerodynamic consequences of the halo.
I have been drumming on about what the aero consequences would be with a windscreen, and there’s been little talk about it. Much of the talk simply centres around it’s appearance. But here we have talk of the halo’s aero issues, so I cannot but imagine an aeroscreen would be far far more problematic.
The halo is just a couple of bars and otherwise air is quite free to pass through it. I’m sure that is one of the big reasons the halo was accepted and will be used. Yet it can even cause overheating and lack of air into the airbox, and change how air hits the rear wing.
The article presents the issue as a challenge that is not insurmountable, and we may see little add-ons to it to help in the aero rhelm. But I simply cannot look at or think of an aeroscreen as anything but a game changer as to what they would have to do with the airbox itself, it’s sides, the side pods, and the rear wing, which in turn would cause a rethink from the front wing back to get air to do what they need considering a big piece of plexiglass now in front of the driver, completely changing the airflow vastly more than the relatively see-thru halo.
Gabriel (@rethla)
17th February 2018, 16:49
I dont get anything of that from the article. What i read is engineers being happy about a new area to gain an edge in and a few new interesting possibilities to explore.
Robbie (@robbie)
17th February 2018, 17:50
@rethla I don’t take from the article that they are ‘happy’ about this, but just that it is a work in progress, as indeed even the halo presents aero challenges. I’m sure the regs will have been designed to keep the halo neutral but that the teams will be allowed to add a few carbon bits here and there in a very limited way, so as to avoid overheating for example. But I get no impression that anybody is going to be using the halo as some great aero advantage. That I think is not in the cards.
Gabriel (@rethla)
17th February 2018, 21:01
What about “It does open up some avenues that possibly are interesting to look at” and “Actually if you look at everybody’s bare chassis before it’s got any bodywork they’re all very similar. So when you get something new thrown in there the engineers love it because they see it as an opportunity to do a better job than somebody else.”
Robbie (@robbie)
17th February 2018, 21:39
@rethla For sure but I just don’t take ‘interesting’ to be anything exciting or joyful like they’re going to find some gob of magic downforce somehow out of this. ‘Interesting’ to me in this case might mean to figure out perhaps a little better than the rest how to neutralize the halo’s negative aero effect, not use it for downforce. I don’t think that will be allowed nor the spirit of the thong, er, sorry…thing.
Rhys Lloyd (@justrhysism)
17th February 2018, 22:35
@robbie engineers love problem solving, that’s why they’re engineers because all engineering is solving problems.
They’re happy that they now have scope (slight as it may be) to gain an advantage through doing a better job than another team. That’s what they love doing. They relish the challenge.
Robbie (@robbie)
17th February 2018, 22:38
@justrhysism For sure.
Josh (@canadianjosh)
17th February 2018, 14:52
Lol, that’s hilarious
Josh (@canadianjosh)
17th February 2018, 14:54
Bullfrogs comment that is.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
17th February 2018, 15:59
I’ve asked the question many times but surprisingly no one here has been able to answer it – I guess that’s how complicated the Halo is.
Is the Halo fixed or removable in the sense that there is a hinge upfront that can be used to open it up in case of accident?
If it’s fixed, as we can see from Verstappen’s shot inside the car, an injured driver is pretty much doomed inside the car unless they add James Bond gadgets to jettison the driver out of the car which presents safety issues and technical issues of its own.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
17th February 2018, 16:11
@freelittlebirds It’s fixed in place.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
17th February 2018, 16:18
@Keithcollantine Thanks!
What’s the technical term for the neck support that Mercedes replaced at Baku? That’s a really wide piece.
How does a team put the neck support on the car and remove it if the Halo is fixed?
Can a driver do that on their own while inside the vehicle or will all drivers require assistance to get out of the cars with the Halo?
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
17th February 2018, 16:49
Actually, if anyone wants to see what I’m talking about, check out the McLaren close up at the top of this article and an overhead shot of the new Williams.
You can see the challenge that the Halo presents with the massive neck support which itself is a removable piece and must be removed for the driver to get out.
I’m frankly a little bit surprised that the FIA didn’t tackle this issue or it hasn’t been discussed before because when you put a fixed piece of metal right on top of the seat, you have to make sure that it doesn’t interfere with the current ability of the driver to exit the car. Any safety improvements that the Halo adds, can be easily offset or negated by making it harder to exit the car in case of an accident or fire.
IJW (@)
17th February 2018, 17:50
@freelittlebirds I think the FIA increased the Extraction time limit to take the halo into account. It was increased by a second to (I think) 5.
BasCB (@bascb)
17th February 2018, 19:36
when the driver has to be taken out of the car in an accident, they don’t have to remove the headrest though @freelittlebirds
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
17th February 2018, 21:31
@ijw1 really, did they make that change? Still 5 seconds in a flaming car sounds like an eternity.
@bascb how can the driver’s shoulders fit with the headrest?
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
17th February 2018, 16:12
I should also point that even if it’s not fixed and drivers can push it out of the way (in case the car is on fire and they need to come out), it still adds an extra step in getting out of the car and pushing a heavy metal out of the way may not be easy while sitting down and having it to do it with 1 arm in some case but that still is not really the same test as hitting a wall at 200mph and being injured with a few broken ribs and garnering the strength to lift it while in shock.
What are the current steps for getting out of the car?
1. Unlocking and lifting the neck support (very light)
2. Taking out the steering wheel -must drivers do that to get out or is it possible to climb out for some skinny drivers to get out while leaving the steering wheel in place?
3. Taking off their harness.
4. Unlocking Halo (in the back hinges I assume). That might not be easy if you’re injured to reach behind your neck and unsnap using 5-10lbs of force.
5. Pushing 7 lb weight with enough force to create egress to 180 degrees (1 armed vs 2 armed, injured and in shock)
6. Climb out of car
Hmm, steps 4 and 5 – that’s insane. I can’t see that being acceptable for an injured driver to perform in a car that’s on fire…
Robbie (@robbie)
17th February 2018, 17:42
@freelittlebirds I am going to assume that since the halo has been approved, there is nothing preventing a driver from removing on his own that wraparound piece that gave LH grief in Baku last year. That overhead shot you reference of the Williams to me shows that they have allowed room for that to come off as usual, and after all, they simply wouldn’t implement the halo if it trapped drivers inside.
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
17th February 2018, 20:58
Can skip step 4. Halo is not removable – integrated into the safety cell.
However…if during extreme deceleration trauma, the force is greater than 1 London Bus Elephant, then the Halo could deform and prevent emergency driver extraction. In that unlikely event, the driver will be free to file a complaint with the FIA and his concerns will be reviewed in due course.
Rhys Lloyd (@justrhysism)
17th February 2018, 22:42
Pretty sure the marshals now have extra tools to cut the Halo should they need to. I remember reading about it a while ago; can’t seem to find the article though.
But it seems in most scenarios they really won’t need to: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/131095/six-key-myths-about-f1-halo-device-busted
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
17th February 2018, 22:54
10 seconds = No Time. That’s FIA timing explained right there.
Good to know they have the tools to cut the halo if required…in no time.
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
17th February 2018, 22:59
12 seconds = No Time. That’s FIA timing explained right there. And my reading comprehension.
Ruben
17th February 2018, 16:35
“The Halo is designed to withstand a 150kN force – comparable to an African elephant sitting on it – ”
It’s an elephant thong then.
TEDBELL
17th February 2018, 17:24
Is there anything in the rules that states the Halo as we see it today can have “bits” added to it by team choice to deflect airflow in a manner to benefit downforce ? Could a team build into the chassis a airfoil shape ahead of Halo which improves overall airflow or to generate downforce or feed the engine high pressure by redirecting how Air flows. Could the coldair box openings be fit into a Halo shape area where the drag from pulling the airbox down the track was eliminated from not having that mass so highbinto the flow of air.
Is the Halo a no mans land for adding bits to it ?
Maybe it’ll happen if the rules allow. So where do the rules actually stand?
IJW (@)
17th February 2018, 17:48
There’s a limit on the size of the “fairing” that can be added to the halo. If I remember correctly it is 20mm.
Robbie (@robbie)
17th February 2018, 17:56
Yeah I can’t say I have any more info than what @ijw1 has just said, and in general my sense of it is that the halo is meant as a neutral device and any bits added will be very limited in scope and size and meant mainly to ensure things like cars not overheating, by directing air, but I really don’t expect that teams are meant to be turning this into an aero device for gaining downforce. It is a safety device that is universal for all the teams, and not meant to drive costs through the roof with R&D on aero surrounding it. Tweeks sure, but nothing more.
TEDBELL
17th February 2018, 18:50
Fair enough
I now know more
mrvco
18th February 2018, 1:14
Why would they ever allow an African Elephant on the grid? Makes no sense.
TheBullWhipper (@thebullwhipper)
18th February 2018, 12:05
So he can catch his bus………
F1 Alleycat (@f1alleycat)
3rd March 2018, 12:35
@mrvco, @thebullwhipper Lol :-D
Don
18th February 2018, 17:03
How often is there a need to withstand a 150kN force? The real need is to to protect from flying parts & debris, like IndyCar’s screen. The halo does nothing for that unless the driver is lucky enough to be hit on the top V of the helmet thong.
Markp
19th February 2018, 0:18
By increasing the limit of extraction to 5 seconds F1 has increased extraction time by 20 percent to stop an accident that has not occurred in F1 but could of helped an Indy car driver and 2009 F2 driver…. Not logical. Meanwhile the only serious F1 accident of past few decades (Massa 2009) has not been addressed. 2 fatal F1 accidents were simple to solve, don’t run cars near 10 ton vehicles.
Markp
19th February 2018, 0:20
Increase is 25 percent in extraction time. Halo is a good idea as never know what happens in the future but is it really a good solution. Seems like giving with one hand and taking with the other.