Closed cockpits the way ahead in Formula 1 after Alonso crash

Closed cockpits in Formula 1 are now almost a given in future seasons after Fernando Alonso’s lucky escape during the first corner incident at Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, in which the Championship leader was violently collected by the Lotus of Romain Grosjean and the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton.

With Technical Chiefs up and down paddock hinting at bringing forward plans to introduce closed cockpit designs, it is believed these introductions could occur as soon as 2014. With Grosjean’s car passing so closely to Alonso’s vulnerable head, a horrific outcome was only centimeters away as the Frenchman’s machine flew over the top of Alonso’s Ferrari.

A similar incident occurred in 2007, when David Coulthard tangled with Alexander Wurz at the season opening Australian Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver was attempting to overtake Wurz in the Williams, however the Austrian driver failed to notice him and the two collided with Coulthard flying over the Williams in similar fashion to Grosjean on Sunday.

Closed cockpits in Formula 1 has been on the cards for several years now, especially after Felipe Massa was struck on the head by debris from Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn GP car at the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix. This incident severely injured Massa, and came only days after Henry Surtees was killed in a similar incident during a Formula 2 race at Brands Hatch. McLaren’s Paddy Lowe believes the introduction of closed cockpits is inevitable, after working on the project in recent years.

"I think 2014 is intended, as we started the project a year ago," explained McLaren’s Technical Director, Paddy Lowe. "Personally I think something is inevitable because it is the one big [safety] exposure that we have got. You see it time and time again and think ’that was lucky’. One day it won’t be lucky. At the same time it is an open cockpit formula so we have to protect that, but it should be technically possible one way or another."

Romain Grosjean was subsequently issued a one race ban for causing the incident, which took out two Championship contenders and nearly injured a fellow competitor. The Frenchman has become renowned for his start-line antics, and hopefully this ban will change his mentality when he returns to racing at the Singapore Grand Prix later this month.

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