F1 Car Cockpit Test – Tire VS Cockpit

As speeds increase in all forms of racing, driver safety becomes more and more imperative, and the FIA is taking steps to increase drivers safety in ways that look awfully familiar, especially to those of us who follow NHRA Top Fuel and drivers like Team Speed Society Racing’s own Leah Pritchett and Antron Brown.

While the FIA has utilized a great number of safety innovations over the years to help keep the drivers safe, one area that has been left glaringly open – no pun intended – to risk is the driver’s cockpit, which is open and leaves the driver exposed to flying debris.

To my knowledge, and I admittedly do not follow Formula 1 all that closely, this has only been a minor issue for the sanction, but hopefully the steps being taken will prevent it from becoming a major one.

The FIA recently conducted a test to rate the safety impact a cockpit style enclosure would offer compared to a polycarbonate windscreen currently being used. The test is simple enough, although incredibly awesome to watch. They fired a wheel and tire, often seen becoming airborne during F1 races – at both the current windscreen and a fighter jet-style canopy. I don’t have to tell you, hitting a wheel/tire combo at 200 MPH is a serious impact, and despite utilizing the most advanced helmets in the world, I’m afraid that impact would be too great for any helmet to withstand.

As you can see in the video, the test is pretty definitive. Although the current windshield does deflect the tire up and over where the driver would be sitting, the windscreen is heavily damaged, while the aircraft canopy withstands the impact with no visible breakage. To me, the difference comes in that rare, but almost inevitable “freakish” accident where the tire falls from overhead at just the right time to miss the windshield and impact the driver directly. An enclosed canopy would almost completely eliminate any chance of that ever happening.