GPWizard F1 Forum

F1 News & Discussions => General F1 Discussion => Topic started by: John S on May 30, 2019, 11:37:27 AM

Title: Merc to drop red F1 halo - but should halo colour become driver Identifier?
Post by: John S on May 30, 2019, 11:37:27 AM

The red halo on the Mercedes cars at Monaco made quite a visual impression and no doubt was a good tribute to Niki. The team have said they will not re-appear on the cars.

However it set me wondering could halo colour offer one of easiest ways to distinguish between team mates for most of us?

Teams could choose their own colour for each teammate but they would have to be different to each other - or is that too complicated? 

Title: Re: Merc to drop red F1 halo - but should halo colour become driver Identifier?
Post by: cosworth151 on May 30, 2019, 03:00:48 PM

I think it's a very good idea. something similar is quite common in sports/endurance racing. Some body part (often the mirrors) will be different colors to help identify different cars of the same team.

F1 used to do this with the camera pod on top of the air intake. In the early 2000's, the team's #1 driver had a red camera pod, the #2 was black and the T-car (test driver) was lime green. The really fun part was often guessing which driver would be assigned the #1 red pod.

Title: Re: Merc to drop red F1 halo - but should halo colour become driver Identifier?
Post by: Jericoke on May 30, 2019, 03:14:28 PM

1)  The red looked great, I wish they'd keep it.

2)  The number one driver has a black camera pod, number 2 has a bright green one.  The bright green sort of vanishes into the background and is hard to see.

3)  Given that traditionally driver helmets were how we would tell who was driving what, and that the halo obscures the helmet, it makes a lot of sense for the halo to be personalized by the driver.  I'm more surprised this hasn't come up already.

Title: Re: Merc to drop red F1 halo - but should halo colour become driver Identifier?
Post by: Alianora La Canta on May 30, 2019, 03:29:47 PM

I like the idea. However, rather than making it a consistent colour the way the T-cams are (they're still done that way, cos, and now whoever has the bigger race number gets the colourful T-cam), I like the idea of painting Halos as an extension of driver helmet designs. (Yes, I know that doesn't help much with the Red Bull or Racing Point teams, but generally having an expansion of the helmet identifier is useful for casual viewers).