Brownsburg, Indiana - IndyCar and Formula One are investigating the use of enclosed cockpits to improve driver safety following the recent death of Briton Justin Wilson, and could take a leaf out of the National Hot Rod Association's book.
Former F1 driver Wilson suffered severe head injuries from flying debris during a wreck in the closing laps of an IndyCar race in Pennsylvania last month and died in hospital the following day.
While none of the prototypes in IndyCar or Formula One has yet shown the benefits to clearly outweigh the disadvantages, the National Hot Rod Association's premier division, Top Fuel, has been racing successfully with canopies since 2012.
Don Schumacher Racing, which fields cars for series champions Tony Schumacher and Antron Brown, developed some of the original cockpit designs which are still in use today.
The fragile-looking but monstrously powerful Top Fuel racers develop around 7500kW as they rocket down a 305 metre strip in less than four seconds, reaching top speeds of more than 500km/h. They require parachutes to help them stop.
At those speeds a strike from anything - such as the bouncing spring that struck Felipe Massa's head at the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2009 - could be fatal to one of the NHRA drivers.
The canopy used by the drag racers closes over the existing car, and eight-times NHRA champion Schumacher would now never contemplate competing without one.
“I've hit three birds in my life in a top fuel,” Schumacher said. “You hit one with just your helmet it will kill you. I don't care what helmet you have on. It will blind you at 450km/h - and you're going to put the car upside down.”
Aside from the safety aspect, there is another benefit according to Schumacher.
“The turbulence is taken away and the sound is so much better. I can hear the engine so much better because I'm in a capsule,” he said.
According to Don Schumacher Racing, the cockpit protects the driver with “a hydraulic, fighter jet-type canopy that includes sides and a rear made of a combination of Kevlar and carbon fiber” that slips over of an existing chassis.
“The canopy can be quickly released inside by the driver or at the rear by crew or safety workers. The canopy also carries a fire suppression system and fresh-air breathing system.”
NO FATALITIES
There has not been a fatality in the NHRA's Top Fuel category in more than 80 meetings since canopies were adopted in August 2012 and Brown is a firm believer after surviving a fiery crash in May last year without suffering an injury.
“My car hit the wall, it knocked off the front wing which hit right in the top center of the cockpit where my head was,” 2012 national champion Brown said about his crash in qualifying for the NHRA Summer Nationals at Atlanta Dragway.
“If we only had a windshield, it would have hit me in the helmet and I wouldn't be here telling you about it.”
Meanwhile, IndyCar safety measures have benefited from the work of Dr Stephen Olvey, a founding fellow of the FIA Institute for Motor Sports Safety, and Dr Terry Trammell.
Massa's injury in 2009, followed by the death of Henry Surtees, son of Formula One world champion driver John Surtees, in a Formula 2 car, accelerated the search for answers, Olvey said.
“But this led to more questions than answers, really,” said Olvey, who pointed out that the jet canopy solution could create more problems if debris ricocheted off the canopy into grandstands following an accident.
“It would be catastrophic,” he said.
Olvey also underscored the fact that IndyCars and Formula One cars race over long distances, and sometimes in driving rain, rather than in the short sprint of Top Fuel.
“So other issues to address could be ventilation, comfort and visibility,” he said.
For Olvey, speedy access after an IndyCar accident was a top priority as cockpits could trap the driver in the event of the car overturning.
“Anything that takes more time to get to the driver is time lost in resuscitative massage to save someone with an airway obstruction and breathing,” he said.
“No question that the head is the most vulnerable area of the driver, and fortunately these are freak accidents and are rare.
“There has been a cluster over the last five years and this is worrisome. There's probably a solution that hasn't been found yet.”
BUTTON CHANGES HIS MIND
Jenson Button has also called for Formula One to introduce closed cockpits as soon as possible. Once a strong supporter of cockpits remaining open, the 2009 world champion said Justin Wilson's fatal crash last month had forced a change of mind.
"This (death) just shouldn't happen at this time in motorsport. It's not the 70s, you know, we should know better," the McLaren driver told reporters at the Italian Grand Prix on Thursday.
"I was one of many drivers that said 'This is open cockpit racing, it should stay as open cockpit racing'. But I think we've all had enough now.
"It's time to do something serious about it, not just changing the headrest on the cars and things. I think you've got to get a canopy on the car of some sort. We can't have this happening as much as it has."
Button grew up racing go-karts against Wilson and Dan Wheldon, the double Indy 500 champion who was killed at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2011, and said he was 'pretty devastated' by the latest fatality.
Wilson's death came only a month after many Formula One drivers had attended the funeral of Frenchman Jules Bianchi, who died in July of serious head injuries suffered in a Japanese Grand Prix crash last October.
"Since Henry Surtees, there have been a lot of head injuries that have ended up with death, so it's got to be changed," said Button.
The son of Britain's 1964 world champion John Surtees died in a Formula Two race at Brands Hatch in 2009 when he was hit on the helmet by a loose wheel bouncing across the track.
Formula One's governing body, the International Automobile Federation, is to carry out more tests this month on devices that could protect drivers' heads. However previous tests have failed to get around obstructed vision and the difficulty of extracting a driver in an emergency from a closed cockpit.
Button said a canopy was probably the way to go.
"It needs to happen sooner rather than later and I think in Indycar it needs to happen because they seem to have a lot more issues than we do," he said.
Double world champion and fellow Briton Lewis Hamilton agreed something had to be done.
"Sometimes change is the way forward," he said. "I don't know if I'd like it. It would feel really strange if you had a canopy or a window over your head. But...we've had too many fatalities.
"Whilst there have been a lot less than 20 years ago, its still too many, we shouldn't have any."
Reuters