The ‘Hulkenberg triggered’ massive crash on Turn 1 of the Belgian GP has put all the Halo debate to bed, as Alonso’s air borne car went right over Leclerc’s cockpit, but did not cause any damage to the young Sauber driver as the Halo protected him.
The crash was pretty scary, as Hulkeberg’s lock up meant that he rammed straight into Alonso, whose air borne car could have gone anywhere.
The path it took then damaged 4 other cars, thereby causing a massive chaos during lap 1 and ending the race of Hulkeberg, Alonso, Raikkonen, Leclerc and Ricciardo.
Now, all the debate around the Halo came to an end last night, as slow motion footage that was released later last night revealed that Alonso’s car had infact made contact with the Halo. The Halo prevented any sort of impact on the driver and thus Leclerc emerged from the accident unhurt.
A reddit user r/telegraph_road came up with a frame by frame video showing Alonso’s car getting deflected away from Leclerc’s cockpit by the Halo.
Here is the video of the same:
A 360 degree video footage has also been released by Formula 1, one that looks as scary as the frame by frame video above.
WOW 👀 😮 🙈 💥#BelgianGP 🇧🇪 #F1 @Charles_Leclerc pic.twitter.com/GOy3Jfszhd
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 27, 2018
Here’s the image of the damage done to the Halo, and the kind of impact it was able to sustain, thereby protecting Charles Leclerc from any impact.
Charles Leclerc’ car. Safe to say the halo discussion is now closed. #belgianGP pic.twitter.com/EcSxvk2GTm
— Giedo van der Garde (@GvanderGarde) August 26, 2018
The multiple footages that we have seen and the kind of protection the Halo provided the driver with, all the Halo naysayers should rest their case and accept the fact that the Halo is required for driver safety.
Hulkenberg received a 10 place grid penalty for Monza for triggering the entire crash.