Paul Jeffrey
Premium
We may not like it from a visual point of view, but today the Halo very much proved its worth in a ferocious accident at turn 1 in Spa.
Reminiscent of Spa 2012, the opening corner accident for Nico Hulkenberg / Fernando Alonso / Charles Leclerc was as spectacular as it was dangerous, with Sauber youngster Leclerc perhaps the most fortunate driver of the bunch to walk away without injury - thanks in no small part to the new for 2018 Halo device fitted to his Alfa Romeo Sauber Ferrari Grand Prix car.
Introduced as a safety measure to protect the exposed head of Formula One drivers in accidents such as this, Spa 2018 very much provided one of the most prominent and visually striking tests of the new device, protecting Leclerc as the McLaren Renault of Alonso continued its journey atop the Sauber driver.
Post race TV images of the stricken machine would show considerable damage to the device caused by the underside of the out of control McLaren, proving itself both robust enough to absorb considerable forces from a race impact, and potentially preventing what could have been a much more serious accident should it have occurred prior to the introduction of the controversial device at the beginning of this season.
Fans might no like it, drivers might not be overly pleased with it either, but one thing is for sure, young Charles Leclerc probably owes more than a little gratitude to the Halo at the end of the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix.
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