Fernando Alonso hailed F1’s halo as the savior of Charles Leclerc after crashing with him at Belgium Grand Prix
Nico Hulkenberg failed to brake timely at the first corner, which resulted in hitting his Renault into McLaren. Alonso’s car flied and landed over Leclerc’s Sauber, who was saved by the mighty Halo.
Sauber’s halo had indentations suggesting heavy hit by Alonso’s car, which could be seen deflecting in incident replays.
“I saw the replay and how good was the proof for the halo,” Alonso said.
“We didn’t need any proof but it is a good thing.”
Introduction of halo to F1 was criticized by few drivers and fan because of its shape. Even though majority of drivers supported this addition of safety, but it was criticized because it had distorted open-cockpit identity of Formula 1.
Alonso supported this safety addition, he said: “The positive side is we are all three OK, especially Charles. I flew over his car and the halo was a good thing to have today.”
Leclerc after the accident said: “If today it has been useful or not, I don’t know. I don’t know what would have happened without it but in some cases it is definitely helpful.”
But later he realized the importance of halo and took it to his social media account. He added: “Never been a fan of the halo but I have to say that I was very happy to have it over my head today.”
Hulkenberg was penalized with grid and license penalty of 10 and 4 points respectively. He was penalized with 3 license penalty point, which summed up to 4 out of 12 before he could be banned for a race.
Jean Todt, FIA president, quickly responded to the crash on twitter. He said, “Safety first. That’s why we introduced the Halo”
Nico Rosberg, 2016 world champion, took to twitter thanking FIA for introducing Halo. He said, “We can end the HAL discussion now. It will save lives!”
Max Chilton, former Marussia driver, conceded to Halo concept of safety. He said, “And people still think race cars shouldn’t have them. We could have lost another fantastic talent today without it.”
Hulkenberg showed his discontent with the incident which could have taken lives.
He said, “I don’t want that for myself, for Fernando, for everyone. It is a shame and very bitter to take that and difficult to swallow and be out in lap one after the summer break.
“It caught me by surprise. I just misjudged my braking point a little bit and there was no real time to recover it.”
