No HANS ,No Race, says Max

[Armco Bender]

From Planet F1:
Max Mosley has issued a warning to the drivers moaning about the HANS system. Get on with it.
Formula 1 drivers have been warned that if they want to compete in the Australian Grand Prix on March 9th, they will have to wear the Head And Neck safety system.


Thats the end of that debate then,Max has spoken.

[Jordi]

Jacques had this to say on the last day of testing at Valencia: "I have also been working with the HANS device today, which is a little bit difficult but we’ve got to get on with using it!"

So, he's actually trying to get used to it... Can't be criticised anymore...

[Maxmil]

If he goes back to CART, he will probably have to use it. Might as well start now.

[Jordi]

Let's see after the season.

[Lee Janotta]

Hmm... I was kinda hoping the drivers would sit for this one, see how the FIA manages to spin that.

I'm sick like that.

[Thorstone]

What drivers have been moaning? just two isn't? Villeneuve and Heidfeld(Moanfeld)

[Jay]

It's been pretty well proven that it saves lives in America.

[LindaC]

Originally posted by Thorstone
What drivers have been moaning? just two isn't? Villeneuve and Heidfeld(Moanfeld)

Actually none of them find it comfortable. They are trying to make it work for them because they have to. DC says there is a modification he thinks could help but it has to be agreed. He also says that last July Charlie Whiting told the drivers they wouldn't have to wear it if they weren't comfortable with it. Mosley has overruled that. Michael Schumacher said he'd had to make adjustments to be able to wear it and that it shouldn't be compulsory. Some drivers' insurance companies are so unsure about it they want the FIA to give them a letter indemnifying them against any injuries caused by it. There have been no accidents in the last few years that it would have made any difference to.

Someone in the FIA, or connected to the FIA, has an agenda here. Sid Watkins doesn't have to drive wearing it.The drivers should have the choice whether to wear it or not. It's their lives on the line.

[Armco Bender]

CART drivers wear HANS on the road circuits don't they?.
The F1 drivers just need to toughen up a bit.

[Lee Janotta]

Yeah, and they're not too happy about it either, but CART's drivers have been under a lot of pressure from fans and management alike not to make any waves if they want to stay in CART's good graces.

They also don't take the same G-forces at most tracks where they wear it that F1do, with the abundance of street courses. There are much more severe Gs in a lap of Suzuka or Silverstone than there are in a lop of Denver or Vancouver.

There is certainly an agenda... But I think it's just that the HANS has been touted as the greatest thing since sliced bread, and the sanctioning bodies have bought the pitch hook, line and sinker.

[Adam43]

Originally posted by Thorstone
What drivers have been moaning? just two isn't? Villeneuve and Heidfeld(Moanfeld)

Montoya and Michael (at least) have also expressed concern.

[Smokey 6 litre]

shouldn't it be up to the drivers,
if they find it uncomfortable then the shouldn't wear it,
i wouldn't,
just think, concentrating hard around a fast corner but all the time there is a small uncomfortable pain going round and round your head, enough to make anyone loosed concentration i say.

[Logrence]

The forces and speeds in F1 are much greater than those in CART and IRL, it makes something like that much more uncomfortable - although the american series have more of a constant strain on the drivers, the HANS device is more use in an accident against the wall on the ovals - freak accidents that reach 100g - accidents that aren't going to happen in F1.

[Dutton]

HANS as a system should be supported and promoted, in the sense that it should be available to those who want it. However, I believe it also should be something which a driver has control over. There is surely a greater risk to safety having a driver wearing something like that while racing if they don't find it comfortable - the possibility of distraction etc - than to leave them to make a decision about something that only really affects them.

[bcobbus]

There were the same complaints about HANS here in the states when several racing series made it mandetory. However there seems to be no longer any complaints as the drivers have gotten used to HANS.

As to the speeds that F1 races at, yes that may be an issue. However having your head more stable under high G's in an accident is worth it. Dr. Sid Watkins does not lend his full support to just any odd devise, it has to be for real. I have seen many accidents here in the states where HANS most certainly helped the drivers walk away from accidents that before would have caused injuries!!!!

Oh, and as much as I hate to say it, because I hate the IRL, they do run faster then F1. It is not uncommon for them to average laps at about 210mph, 225mph at Indy and other tracks.

[Dutton]

bcobbus, bear in mind that an F1 car would be rather fast on an oval, too.

[bradenc]

I wonder how many drivers in the early days considered helmets uncomfortable and restrictive?

[Lee Janotta]

Originally posted by bcobbus
Oh, and as much as I hate to say it, because I hate the IRL, they do run faster then F1. It is not uncommon for them to average laps at about 210mph, 225mph at Indy and other tracks.

Yeah, and at Fontana, CART's even faster!

Much of the Gs on a superspeedway, though, are not lateral to the driver, due to the banking. Rather than feeling pull only to the side, as an F1 driver does at Monza, a driver on an oval feels pulled both to the side and downwards.

This creates it's own problems, draining blood from the driver's skull, as CART drivers discovered in the aborted race weekend at Texas Motor Speedway two years ago.

[Jay]

The Cart and IRL guys have lateral GForces that far exceed anything in F1 on the superspeedways, lap after lap. Of course, it's always in the same direction which helps the drivers necks.

Speeds aside, I think bradenc makes a very good point. Helmets aren't at all comfortable either... As I recall the HANS device was designed to prevent basal skull fractures caused by the drivers head whipping violently about the cockpit in a head on type collision. Arguably it has saved lives in Cart already, but then it's difficult to say. They'll get used to it.

[Lee Janotta]

Yeah, but I can't ever remember seeing film of a driver in a prewar Grand Prix without some manner of brain bucket.

Seat belts didn't make sense until the cars got better at staying in one piece and not bursting into flame (magnesium chassis with fuel tanks shaped around the cockpit, yipes!!!)

I just think the HANS has been pushed too quickly and aggressively in this safety-obsessed period in motorsport.

[Jay]

They didn't start wearing hard helmets regularily until the 50s. What may look like helmets in the historic footage was merely a cap (sometimes rigid, sometimes cloth!) to keep their hair down. Even then, real helmets (full faced) that would actually do anything in a crash weren't used until the 70s.

HANS has been used in Cart for 3 years now, it has faced test after test both on the track and in the lab, and the majority of doctors in motorsport (at least the respected ones such as Sid Watkins, Steve Olvey and Terry Trammel) all are strong backers of the device. I think that's testing enough.

[Kicking-back]

FIA announced about two years ago HANS would be coming in. The drivers have had plenty of time to test it and get comfortable with it rather than moaning a couple of weeks before the first race.

[Logrence]

Originally posted by Jay
Sid Watkins, Steve Olvey and Terry Trammel) all are strong backers of the device. I think that's testing enough.

But they don't have to wear it.

[Asp]

Originally posted by Lee Janotta
I just think the HANS has been pushed too quickly and aggressively in this safety-obsessed period in motorsport.

Far from it. The FIA have sat on the issue of HANS from day 1, waiting until they were certain of the benefits and that any possible consequences were at best negligable. They've spent a great deal of time monitoring advances and only now are they absolutely happy with how it looks.
If it had been pushed too quickly it would have become mandatory years ago!

[Armco Bender]

Yeah, but I can't ever remember seeing film of a driver in a prewar Grand Prix without some manner of brain bucket

Up until the early 50's most drivers just wore a cloth or leather flying helmet.The helmets of the 50's were only made out of something like paper-mache.The first full face was worn in 1970.Seat belts were only fitted in the mid-60,s and fire proof overalls were around the late '60s too.