What are the F1 Halo device downsides?

At the end of this month all 2018 Formula 1 cars will be revealed and we will see all cars doing their first testing laps on the Catalunya circuit near Barcelona in Spain.

Because the rules didn't change much after the 2017 F1 championship, the cars didn't change much technically. Except for the Halo safety device above the cockpit....

The "Halo' is designed to protect the drivers against hazards from debris that's flying around when another car in front of them crashes and looses a wheel or some other big piece that can hurt or kill the driver when this piece of debris flies into the cockpit.

That the drivers will be more safe is great news off course. But what are the downsides of using the Halo and are they worth this safety device?

10 Downsides of the F1 Halo device

One of the downsides of the Halo device are abusively that it is a very ugly item on the cars, but there are much more downsides then you would expect. We will sum-up the Halo downsides for you:

1. It looks terrible. I think we can all agreed about that.
2. The on-board camera view on the cars are destroyed by the Halo.
3. The Halo is made of titanium and weights around 10 kg which makes the cars heavier and slower.
4. The 2018 regulations approve only an additional 5 kg of weight, which gives the drivers and the teams very big challenge to lose 5 kg of weight somewhere.
5. Because the Halo is mounted very high on the car, it makes the centre of gravity on the cars higher which results into that the cars cornering speed will be slower than last year.
6. The Halo has a lot of impact on the cars aerodynamics, which also makes the cars slower.
7. It also won't protect the drivers of all flying around debris, like the suspension spring that hit Massa on the head in Hungary.
8. It will take more time for drivers to escape their car in case of a fire or when the car is upsidedown.
9. The vision of the drivers in front is now limited by the big bar in front of their heads and the vertical support. A lot of drivers even can't see the start lights when standing on the grid at start of the Grand Prix. The limited vision off course also makes driving the cars less safe and again slows down the speeds.
10. The Halo also destroys the whole open wheel and cockpit concept that Formula 1 had for 67 years. Do you think MotoGP is ever going to use protection bars to protect the drivers?

So plenty of downsides. Can you come up with some more? Please let us know in the comments.

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