Toto Wolff says he would take a chainsaw to the Halo head protection system, and believes it would be with Formula 1’s best interests at heart to come up with a different solution to the problem of protecting a driver.
The Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport admits he is not impressed by the Halo, and although it was introduced on safety grounds, he feels Formula 1 bosses should have sought a better design.
Wolff has joined the chorus of fans that are displeased with the Halo, and although the statistics of what kind of loads the device can withstand, he feels the aesthetics are not ‘Formula 1-like’.
“I’m not impressed with the whole thing,” said Wolff at the launch of Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport’s W09 on Thursday. “If you give me a chainsaw, I would take it off.
“We need to look after the drivers’ safety but what we have implemented is aesthetically not appealing. We need to tackle that and come up with a solution that looks better.
“It’s a massive weight on top of the car, you screw up the centre of gravity massively with that thing. As much as it’s impressive to look at the statistics that you could put a bus on top, this is a Formula 1 car.”
