F1 Safety Helmet

Accidents are a common occurrence on our roads – and they happen under regulated speed limits. So driving at high speeds on a narrow circuit would increase the risk of collisions many times over. The last fatality in Formula One occurred in 1994, when Brazilian Ayrton Senna died from horrific head injuries as a result of crashing his Williams into a concrete wall at over 210km/h. Ironically, Senna has gathered all the competitors earlier in the day of the race with intention of forming a driver’s group to look into F1 safety. He did so following the severe injuries suffered by close friend and countryman Rubben Barrichello and Austrian Roland Ratzenberger (the Austrian eventually succumbed to his injuries.
Since then, F1 have taken great measures to improve safety. They have looked into everything from car to driver, to minimize the risks of the dangerous pursuit. The driver’s helmet is a perfect example. These dome-shaped devices proved just how strong they are during Felipe Massa’s freak accident at the Hungarian Grand Prix. A spring was hurled at him at racing speed. If not for this helmet taking the full force of the impact and protecting his head, his injuries would have been even more devastating.
Commonly constructed out of layers of carbon fibre with fireproof lining inside, they weigh only 1.25kg each. On top of complement aerodynamic flow. All F1 drivers use full-face helmets that have been rigorously tested to comply with rules and procedures set by the FIA. Customized for individual drivers, the helmets also block out a lot of the surrounding noise, which allows the drivers to have easier radio communication with their engineers.
Another important component of the helmet is the visor. The strip of super-strong polycarbonate is about 3mm thick, is fireproof, and comes in variable tinted shades depending on the time of the session, the state of the weather and the state of the track. At last year night race in Singapore, many of the drivers had lighter-tinted visors to help visibility. Massa was so concerned with the often stormy weather in Malaysia that he asked for a lighter-tinted visor there as well.
Technology also exist to allow the tinting to adjust “automatically”, like the photochromatic lenses found on some prescriptive spectacles and sunglasses. This is especially useful at Monaco, where it is slightly darker in the Tunnel. The visors will lighten slightly when in the Tunnel and darken when exiting it. Several transparent tear-off strips are also attached to the outside of the visor. As the visor picks up dirt during the course of the race, the driver can remove these to clear his vision.
Complementing the helmet is the Head And Neck Support device, or Hans. In the 1990s, the FIA commissioned the design and development of this life-saving invention of Dr Robert Hubbard of the University of Michigan. Hans does not restrict natural movements made by the head and neck during racing but when an accident occurs, it prevents the head from “whipping” forward with great force. In an accident, the harmful forces acting on the neck can be as much as 600kg, and these can be absorbed by the Hans device.
The FIA has currently commissioned work for the development of the next generation of “super helmets”, which will improve safety standards even further – especially in conjunction with the now mandatory use of the Hans device.

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