Formula 1

Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu credited the 'halo' for keeping him alive following his harrowing first-corner crash at Sunday's British Grand Prix.

Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu said Formula One's halo head protection system had saved him after his car was involved in a huge crash at Silverstone.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr. went on to win his first career Formula One race on Sunday in what was the most dramatic race so far this season. It was the second time on Sunday that the halo had saved a driver from serious injury, and probably worse. “Halo saved me today.

Exactly 68 years ago today, Mercedes-Benz entered its first F1 race, took its first pole position, and won its first Grand Prix, all the same race.

As such, they went on to claim first and second position in the grand prix. Almost exactly like the 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019 seasons of F1! Better yet, a lot of the items are already on sale anyway.

Formula One driver Zhou Guanyu said the halo cockpit saved his life after a horrific crash during the British Grand Prix.

F1 originally intended to introduce halo cockpits to the sport in 2017, but the plan was delayed, citing the “relatively short timeframe” to implement the requirement. Since F1 is considered the the most prestigious racing series, many have looked to it to lead the way in this area, and in some ways it has. The concept leaked in 2015, following the death of IndyCar driver Justin Wilson during a race when his head was struck by debris.

In the aftermath of his accident at the British Grand Prix, Alfa Romeo driver Guanyu Zhou tweeted to say the Halo cockpit protection device on his car had ...

The other major concern was the absence of the roll hoop on the car after it had come to a halt. The catch-fencing did its job remarkably well by preventing the car from flying into an area near marshal posts, photographers and a grandstand, but in stopping Zhou's car it also dropped into a tight gap behind the tyre barrier. The Halo became mandatory on Formula One cars in 2018 after years of FIA research into ways of better protecting a driver's head in open-cockpit racing.

If you want to find success in Formula 1, you're going to need one thing: A good team with a good car. Driving skill is of course important, but skill can't ...

Even landing a coveted seat with the prestigious Ferrari team happened at the wrong time: Amon signed on with a team that prioritized engines at the start of the aerodynamics era. According to his biography, Forza Amon by Eoin Young, Amon considered himself to have pretty great luck, considering he competed in a deadly era of F1 for over a decade without once suffering a serious injury. Then, he’d find himself signed with a team that couldn’t produce an F1 car for him, leaving him to compete in sports cars and hunt for other F1 rides. Sometimes, the right driver finds the right team at just the right time — like Michael Schumacher with Ferrari. Sometimes, though, you end up as a master moonlighter bouncing from team to team, like one Chris Amon. It’s a pretty impressive record for Amon, though perhaps not in the way he’d have liked. If you want to find success in Formula 1, you’re going to need one thing: A good team with a good car.

Driver Zhou Guanyu says the halo device saved his life after a horror crash at Silverstone on Sunday.

"The other argument was whether it was affecting the driver's visibility, looking out of the cockpit. He says he is the latest in a series of drivers to be saved by the halo safety device. But it quickly proved its worth when it was introduced in 2018, following a campaign by the late FIA F1 director Charlie Whiting and the Grand Prix Drivers' Association. But a few years later Hamilton said it had saved his life in his crash at the Italian Grand Prix in 2021. After years of research it was found to be the only device that successfully passed the test of deflecting a wheel fired at it at 150mph. Halo is a wishbone-shaped titanium bar that sits on top of the cockpit of the car and wraps around the driver's head.

The drivers and teams report back on all the action from Silverstone, for the Formula 1 British Grand Prix 2022...

The cars were fast, the guys did a good job, the pit-stops were good, so what we need to do now is a very good qualifying and a very good race and then we’re back in the game.” Luckily, I only damaged my front wing and was able to get back to the pits with the red flag and continue to race with the restart. "We lost a little bit of time in the pit stop, and then I was chasing, and chasing, and chasing, but the pace was great on both sets of tyres and then at the end there it was just a little bit difficult. I had a really great run on the second restart and could see the fans cheering for me in the stands, which was awesome to see. In addition, he experienced a DRS failure that required an additional pit-stop mid race and required him to run without the DRS in the second half of the race. Lewis on the other had a great start moving to 3rd so it was a shame that he was put back into fifth for the restart from where we dropped a further position. On the other hand, we can be pleased that we were fighting at the front after a very tough start to our season and a lot of hard work from everyone in Brackley and Brixworth to recover a huge performance gap. I asked the marshals to leave the car and next thing, when I got back, the car was on the back of the flatbed which meant I couldn’t restart. This year is going to be a pretty tough one to win but we just need to get our house in order to be properly on top of the car’s performance. It was unfortunate because I think it would have been a fantastic race for him today, but every point counts and he fought as hard for P7 as he would for the win. "The car was a handful to drive, I tried to find a good aero balance but it was difficult. “To get back to winning, especially at such a demanding track as Silverstone, is particularly pleasing and confirms that we have worked well this season, both at the track and back in Maranello. Carlos had a great weekend, in which he also secured his first pole position.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Earns Maiden Formula 1 Win at British Grand Prix: Silverstone set the stage for one of the season's most intense races.

It was one of his days, but we managed to hold on and I’m incredibly happy.” Hamilton rounded out the podium in third place, setting a new record for the 13th podium at one single race location. Lewis was on it today, I heard.

What's interesting is that in the modern era a good Silverstone race isn't guaranteed as the high-speed track layout used to practically guarantee the higher- ...

"When you look at it from a purist point of view, it's not ideal, because it seems that we're giving more and more influence to the FIA to dictate what your set-up is. But away from the internet’s toxicity, it was a joy to behold the close battling between the drivers in the final frenetic shootout to the Silverstone flag and their positive reactions to it. So, a bit of a surprise to say the least. "Nobody had an idea until the FIA brought it up, which was to a great surprise of all the teams," said Mercedes’ team boss Toto Wolff. "What's in the regulation and what the intent of the regulations is, is pretty clear. Not only was the RB18 still the machine to beat, but as Ferrari stumbled, Red Bull only lost ground in the teams’ standings on its bad day by a palatable 13 points. While the likes of Haas has played it conservative by avoiding a radical overhaul to truly understand and exploit its car’s baseline performance, the covers came off widely revised Williams, Mercedes, Alpine, Aston and Red Bull creations at Silverstone. It was sheer bad luck that Verstappen’s afternoon was undone by running over debris from the AlphaTauri’s colliding to damage his bodywork and instinctively create a pitstop to remedy any possible puncture. And Carlos, by stopping and being second, he would have protected at least in the first couple of corners where we knew that starting on the hard, it would have been a bit more difficult. But in addition to Sainz refusing to do as suggested, the softs did not degrade as expected. “If we would have stopped, maybe the other ones may have stayed out, and [Leclerc] would have maybe been fourth on soft tyres with other cars ahead of him. This was down to the team orders saga in which the Scuderia found itself entangled once Verstappen had dropped out of contention. Once again, Red Bull’s package looked the class of the field before fate intervened, but Ferrari made a fight of it and came away with victory, although not without making very heavy weather of things and denying Leclerc a near certain win he’d worked brilliantly to be eying.

The sport's only Chinese driver was extricated from his car, which ended up upside down.

Formula One officials also said that several fans had attempted to invade the track after the crash. Obviously gutted to end the race this way and I’m sorry for the team and the fans. Esteban Ocon and Yuki Tsunoda, who were also caught up in the affair, had repairs and returned to the grid. Williams’s Alex Albon and Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly were also involved in the crash. “That was a scary incident and all credit to the marshals and medical team for their quick response. Zhou, with the car’s protective halo doing its job, eventually was extricated and taken from the course on a stretcher in an ambulance.

In 2017, right before Halo was introduced, some leading figures from Formula 1 (F1) called it an “overreaction“. But looking at the horrendous crash of Zhou ...

It may have never been introduced had it not been for the support of the likes of John Surtees. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel had said the device can be as “ugly as possible” as long as it helps save lives. While Halo was intended mostly to protect against large objects, it was also found to provide protection against smaller debris, preventing the helmet from coming in contact with a barrier on multiple occasions. “I understand safety is a huge issue and something we have to work towards, but this is not the one,” he said. Surtees is the only person to have won World Championships on both two and four wheels. Kevin Magnussen, another driver, said, “When you look at the car and it is ugly, F1 cars aren’t meant to be ugly.” Max Verstappen, another driver, said that Halo isn’t only ugly, but also unnecessary. The idea behind Halo is to improve driver safety by preventing large objects entering the car’s cockpit. The same day, in another race, Halo probably saved another driver. Halo, essentially a crash-protection system consisting of a curved bar above the driver’s head, has already saved a few lives in the dangerous world of motorsports. Halo was introduced in 2018 and was very controversial at first, for a surprising reason: aesthetics. Zhou Guanyu was in 9th place in the opening lap of the Silverstone race when he was accidentally hit by another driver. In 2017, right before Halo was introduced, some leading figures from Formula 1 (F1) called it an “ overreaction“. But looking at the horrendous crash of Zhou Guanyu — and how he emerged from it relatively unscathed — it’s hard not to praise it.

Carlos Sainz sealed his maiden victory in Formula 1 at a breath-taking British Grand Prix, overtaking team mate Charles Leclerc to seal a sensational ...

Max Verstappen had to make do with damage to his floor, finishing in seventh. Behind Leclerc, in fourth, was the Alpine of Fernando Alonso, in P5, ahead of Lando Norris in sixth. After starting on pole, Sainz pitted from second place for the soft tyre under the Safety Car – brought about by Esteban Ocon stopping on track.