I've just seen a Mercedes promo documentary after McLaren's 1998 success "The Team Is The Star"
In it featured FIA cockpit airbag testing footage. Does anyone remember anything about this? They obviously concluded it wasn't necessary to go down that route, but interesting that they looked at it.
The HANS device is clearly better suited for a racing car in any case
Interestingly, there was reportedly an article, or "a little story", about the Mercedes-Benz F1 airbag research in Autosport as early as 12 May 1994 when, apparently, the project was just being started upon:
https://groups.googl.../m/R4H_1qzJZUoJ I haven't read the Autosport story, but the date suggests the idea must have come before the fatal accidents at Imola?
Some more info on the FIA and F1 airbags here:
Although there are reports in Europe that Mika Hakkinen's accident in Adelaide has accelerated research into the use of airbags in Grand Prix cars, work has, in fact, being going on since May 1994 when FIA President Max Mosley included airbag research in his brief to the then new Advisory Expert Group.
Some airbag work was carried out earlier this year [1995] at the Motor Industry Research Association headquarters in Nuneaton, England, but this was only to establish baseline figures, using what is known as a HyGe crash simulation. This involves an F1 chassis - a McLaren - being fitted onto a sled which is then fired in the opposite direction to the impact the test is looking to simulate. The effect is identical and, using this technique, can be carried out without the chassis being damaged. The data from several of these simulated crashes ........
https://www.grandpri...g-research.html
Fast-forward to 8 April 2000 when the HANS prototype was displayed in the media centre during the San Marino Grand Prix. From a DailyF1 article:
Known as HANS (Head and Neck Support) the system has been a joint project by the FIA, Mercedes-Benz, and McLaren, and is the brainchild of American biomechanics professor Dr. Robert Hubbard.
...
The new system is an alternative to the Formula One airbag, which was also studied for feasibility by the same three parties involved with HANS.
It was decided the bag could not guarantee avoiding neck strain, and the horizontal seating position of the driver and steering wheel also presented problems for cushioning the driver’s head and chest simultaneously.
While HANS will be refined for introduction, the airbag project has been abandoned.
https://forums.autos...78-hans-system/
I also found some details in this AtlasF1 article by Ross Stonefeld written after the death of Dale Earnhardt:
In October of 1996, a joint venture comprising of McLaren International, Mercedes-Benz, and the FIA, was created to research a driver restraint system for head-on and oblique frontal impacts, with a crash angle of up to 30°.
DaimlerBenz contracted Hubbard/Downing, Inc. for joint testing and development to make the HANS device suitable for Formula One competition. Initial tests - run in a Formula 3000 monocoque specified to 1998 Formula One cockpit regulations - proved successful, and in April of 2000 at the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola the final reports were released and with the approval of the FIA Safety Committee, HANS was recommended for use.
https://www.atlasf1..../stonefeld.html
Edited by ANF, 28 February 2024 - 00:30.