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Halo delay supported by team engineering chiefs

The controversial decision taken last week to delay the introduction of the new Halo cockpit protection system for a year has been roundly supported by Formula One team technical chiefs.

The FIA Strategy Group decided to delay the introduction of the Halo until 2018 to allow more time for testing and development, and to give all teams a chance to run practice sessions with the device installed.

"It’s close, but it’s not yet a thorough solution," said Red Bull chief engineer Paul Monaghan. "I think if the sport is to do a thorough job then the Halo, or any other derivative thereof, needs a little bit more research, a little bit more work.

"We’ve run it at one track, one lap, with our test driver and I wouldn’t have said that’s really the mechanism by which we should introduce such devices and I think it’s the right call to defer it."

"I think a lot of research has gone into it over the years," said Manor's Pat Fry. "I think we started looking at it in 2013 or something like that, but I think you have got to find the right solution and I think it is just that little bit too early isn’t it to try to rush something through this year."

"We’re all focused on keeping the car safe," added McLaren engineering director Matt Morris. "I think we all agree that we need to do something. But yes, it’s just not quite ready yet and it needs a bit more work from the teams and the FIA."

"I think if we had another 12 months we can clearly do a better job of it," contributed Mercedes' Paddy Lowe, joining the consensus. "There are things that are not 100% satisfactory. I think the key thing is to make the best of these next 12 months and make something that ticks all the boxes and meets all the requirements of safety and otherwise in the sport and then we take it from there."

"As Paddy says, 12 months down the line we’ll know a lot more," concurred ferrari's Jock Clear. "But we don’t want to ease off, we don’t want to say ‘OK, so we don’t have to worry about this until August next year’.

"I think the teams will be responsible with it and I know Charlie will and we’ll use those 12 months and get the job done properly."

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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.