Newey still at odds with ‘clumsy and ugly’ Halo

Formula 1 design guru Adrian Newey believes more research should have been conducted on cockpit safety before the introduction of the Halo.

The Red Bull Racing designer, who penned a huge amount of successful cars for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull, is all in favour of anything that can improve safety.

But the aesthetics of the Halo, which will have mandatory presence in F1 from 2018, just make him cringe.

“I have to admit I do have mixed feelings on the Halo,” Newey told Sky Sports F1 during a Facebook live session on Tuesday.

“On the one hand, I do feel that anything you can do to make a car safer is a good thing.

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“When somebody gets’ really seriously injured or dies that it is horrific. I attended Justin Wilson’s funeral three years ago, and to see the grief on the family’s faces was terrible.

“So if it helps to make the car safer, that has to be applauded.

“The engineer in me says that it just seems to be such a clumsy and ugly solution, it just feels as if we ought to be able to do something better than that.”

Newey admitted however that he would struggle to come up with a viable alternative without additional research.

“I think there needs to be more research,” he added.

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“Probably a canopy would be visually more attractive, but then it’s closed-cockpit racing.

“What is important is whatever Formula 1 does has to be affordable for the lower formulae, because the bottom line is why should a Formula Ford driver’s life be valued less than an F1 drivers’ life?

“We have to find a solution that can be carried across, but there’s no escaping it’s ugly. The aesthetic artist in me finds that offensive.”

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