Halo 'will be alright', predicts Ricciardo

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo is confident that the introduction of the Halo won't prove a big challenge for drivers.

The FIA has mandated the use of the cockpit protection device on all cars for the 2018 world championship season.

Fans remain divided on the Halo. However, drivers and team personnel are increasingly coming on board as they become accustomed to it.

Ricciardo was able to trial the device at Silverstone earlier this week as part of the media launch of the RB14.

"So what's the initial verdict on the halo? You know, I think it's going to be alright," he wrote in a blog post on the official Red Bull website.

"Don't get me wrong, I don't love the look of it," he admitted. "But I think it'll be fine.

"[It] will be a big talking point when we all rock up for testing. And then even more once we get to Melbourne.

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"[But] we'll have other things to talk about pretty quickly. Especially once the racing starts and we have the championship beginning to take shape.

"One thing that's become obvious already is that getting into the car is going to take some getting used to," he added. "It's very different. I might need to do some yoga or something to become more flexible!

"But as far as how it looks, I think people are going to get used to the halo pretty quickly and we won't talk about it for too long.

"Remember back in 2009, the year that Brawn won the championship?" he continued. "The cars that year looked so different with the small rear wings, almost like F3 cars?

"People threw their hands up and talked about it a lot at the start, but then we all got used to it and just moved on.

"I reckon the 2009 look was more dramatic than the halo and how long it'll take people to get used to it."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.