Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsSafety

Bianchi's father: FIA 'must go further' than Halo

Jules Bianchi's father - Philippe Bianchi - says the FIA "must go further" with cockpit safety after being left unconvinced by the new Halo device.

Ferrari ran the Halo during an installation lap in Barcelona on Thursday, testing the driver's visibility if the cockpit protection concept was introduced. After his son's fatal accident at the Japanese Grand Prix - as well as IndyCar driver Justin Wilson being killed by flying debris - Bianchi says the Halo device does not provide a total fix for the dangers of an open cockpit.

"I consider that this is a step forward in term of security," Bianchi told Canal+. "It is obvious that in the case of when a wheel comes off, this system would be effective. However, in the case of small debris, as Felipe Massa and Justin Wilson had, that wouldn’t have changed anything. So this is a step forward, but it does not solve everything."

And Bianchi says such a concept would not have helped his son in his accident at Suzuka.

"For Jules, it would not have changed nothing, because it’s the extremely violent deceleration that caused the damage that we know to his brain. I think developments of the HANS system to better absorb big deceleration in a severe impact, could help in this case.

"This is obviously not me who would raise myself against something that brings more security to drivers, but the version of this 'Halo' system did not convince me and has yet to be perfected.

"Aesthetically, it's pretty bad, and I wonder what the driver get to see behind the 'Halo'.

"The FIA wished to act after Jules’s and Justin’s accidents, but it must go further."

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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.