F1 car design with a single seater and open roof is considered as one of the latent risk for the F1 drivers. Former President of the Federation Internationale de I'Automobile (FIA) Max Mosley revealed that F1 ever thought of a radical alternative to installing ejector seat such as modern jet fighter in every car F-1 as a safety feature standard
Although it is definitely wearing a helmet, racers's head is still risky hit by an object in many accidents scheme. Considering the F1 car can be driven up to 330 km/h, so the potential dangers are multiplied, installing ejector seats in its cars to prevent drivers from being injured in an accident.
“They talked about ejector seats at one point, with rockets firing and you name it,” says Mr Mosley. “You can obviously have a quick release mechanism of some kind. They do in jet fighters when they eject, but it is a layer of complexity and all of the track marshals would have to know how to operate it.”
It is worth pointing out that Mr Mosley is not saying, as some have wrongly suggested, “that F1 cars could be fitted with ejector seats.” This is a misunderstanding from not closely analysing the detail of Mr Mosley’s comments. In fact, he is making it clear that ejector seats were considered but were not implemented due to the complexity of the matter.
Similarly, it has been suggested that an ejector seat system should be tested at Suzuka in Japan, where F1 raced yesterday and “where the track passes beneath the start of the 130R Corner – or in the tunnel at Monaco.”
However, the author of this appears to be unaware of the technology of both Formula 1 cars and ejector seats which would allow computer software to prevent them from being deployed on certain parts of the track or, for example, if the car flipped over. In the same way, F1’s Drag Reduction System, which opens a flap in the rear wing of the cars to increase speeds on the straightaways, can only be used on certain parts of the track.
Mr Mosley is well aware of these possibilities as he was president of global auto racing’s governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), from 1991 until 2009. He says that when he was in charge he tested fully enclosed cockpits on F1 cars. “We did big tests. We got hold of these canopies, fired wheels at them and they bounced off.” Similar tests by the FIA have been taking place again this month after a series of fatal accidents beset open cockpit racing.
Last August, British driver Justin Wilson died after being struck in the head by a piece of flying debris from an accident ahead of him at Turn One of the Pocono Raceway during an IndyCar race in Pennsylvania.
In July, the French F1 driver Jules Bianchi, he had an accident on a wet Suzuka circuit when the Japanese GP. His head was seriously injured after the car hit a tractor that would cleanse another car accident on the circuit.
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