Should f1 run coupes?

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Originally Posted by henners88

I'm sure the teams could come up with some pretty ingenious wiper designs seeing how much care is taken to make an F1 car as aerodynamic as possible. Plus with the cars being so streamline with immense downforce, small objects like wipers would have to be fixed with great care or we'd also have an opening for more objects causing danger whilst racing. For example wipers going through drivers windscreens lol. I'm sure we'll see more on this in the coming weeks and they won't be as ridiculous as they sound or look in the testing vid. :)

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I didn't see any kind of wipers on driver helmets until now. The right shape is more than enough for getting the water away from the windshield especially at speed.

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Originally Posted by ArrowsFA1

Is the safety record of other racing series that have closed cockpits such as saloon cars and sports cars measurably better than F1?

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Yep, it is.

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Originally Posted by henners88

And curved windscreen's on single seaters have proved problematic in the past as the cars are not wide enough to allow a curve that does not distort the field of view. Obviously if there was a quick fix to such problems we would have seen better results by now and windscreens have been considered since the 60's. We won't know anymore until its trialled.

PS: Could you share with us these 'wipers on helmets' you've seen? I'm curious as that sounds interesting. :)

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How could I if they don't exist?! English seems to be a problem for the Brits around here. :rolleyes:

Anyway back to your previous insinuation, why would they need wipers on a F1 canopy?
And if the rain is no problem with the curvature of the helmet visor why would it be on a canopy with the same curvature?

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Originally Posted by henners88

These windscreens were used in the 60's in Formula Two but were scrapped due to complications and not being effective. Times have moved on and materials have moved on greatly but glare and dirt gathering on a screen that is difficult to clean is a problem that will be difficult to solve IMO.

For reference:

http://www.carlosghys.be/photographs..._3_400x316.jpg

http://www.tcnj.edu/~edelbach/ring67/ferrari-f2.jpg

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50 years of progress will help though

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Originally Posted by ioan

And if the rain is no problem with the curvature of the helmet visor why would it be on a canopy with the same curvature?

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Ever worn a helmet in the rain ioan? The visor gets covered in water quickly and glare IS a problem, a very serious one.

Bikers and F1 drivers can wipe away the rain, in fact most riding gloves have a leather strip on the index finger to allow just that. F1 drivers also get the usual tear-offs too.

A canopy would need a wiper system in the rain or would quickly become unusable.

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Originally Posted by Dylan H

Ever worn a helmet in the rain ioan? The visor gets covered in water quickly and glare IS a problem, a very serious one.

Bikers and F1 drivers can wipe away the rain, in fact most riding gloves have a leather strip on the index finger to allow just that. F1 drivers also get the usual tear-offs too.

A canopy would need a wiper system in the rain or would quickly become unusable.

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To be honest at speed and with the surface of the canopy being so streamlines I don't see it as a huge problem. But it certainly needs to be looked at.

Theres been moore fatal accidents i the Le Mans racing. I don´t know what you are talking about.

The thing about this is where does it all end?

We all recognise that an activity such as motorsport can never be 100% safe for everyone involved. In these risk averse days the removal of all risk seems to be the aim. On the face of it this is very laudable. Clearly no-one wants to see people injured or killed.

Is the end solution to have drivers logged into their computers in their tax-haven homes and competing in on-line racing? Anyone could login and spectate (Bernie will of course charge a fee!!) and just think...we could go back to the 'golden era' and have have the drivers racing on classic circuits in classic cars!!

Safety would no longer be a concern for anyone. Marvellous!!!!

All a load of nonsense of course, but the point is - how far do we go down this road?

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Originally Posted by ArrowsFA1

The thing about this is where does it all end?

We all recognise that an activity such as motorsport can never be 100% safe for everyone involved. In these risk averse days the removal of all risk seems to be the aim. On the face of it this is very laudable. Clearly no-one wants to see people injured or killed.

Is the end solution to have drivers logged into their computers in their tax-haven homes and competing in on-line racing? Anyone could login and spectate (Bernie will of course charge a fee!!) and just think...we could go back to the 'golden era' and have have the drivers racing on classic circuits in classic cars!!

Safety would no longer be a concern for anyone. Marvellous!!!!

All a load of nonsense of course, but the point is - how far do we go down this road?

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Precisely.

As I said earlier, if we're really serious about risk in motorsport lets ban the whole thing.

There have been no circuit racing fatalities in Switzerland since 1955. Now thats what I call safe!

Reports are starting to come out now about the rejection of this idea .

Reasons are said to be the difficulty of extraction and worries about fire , in the event of a collision and/or roll-over .

One thing we didn't think of that apparently was discussed , was the potential for debris ricochetting off the canopies into the crowd .
It doesn't seem like much of an additional concern to me , as things can deflect off that area of the car regardless of whether it is "canopied" or not .

Reminds me of a joke :
What's the difference between a poor Scot and a rich one ?
The rich one has a canopy over his bed , and the poor one has a can-o-pee under his .

Too off-topic , or perhaps even "racist" ?
Sorry in advance .