Whiting defends halo after Hülkenberg crash

FIA Formula 1 race director Charlie Whiting has defended the halo, saying that it did not slow down the extraction of Nico Hulkenberg after his scary crash in last weekend’s season finale in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Hulkenberg collided with the Haas of Romain Grosjean and was pitched into multiple barrel rolls before coming the rest against the barriers, upside down, making it impossible for his to get out.

There was a bit of panic from the German when a small fire broke out, but that was quickly sorted.

Some people blamed the halo for Hulkenberg’s slow extraction from the car but Whiting disagrees.

He said: “There’s nothing to worry about there. The routine under those circumstances is to put the car back on its wheels.

“Once the car was back on its wheels, which has to be done carefully of course, he was able to get out by himself. It was very controlled from what I could see.

“Our medical delegate was more than happy with the way it was done. It all worked exactly as it should.”

Whiting even turned it around and gave a positive to the halo in this situation.

He added: “Quite clearly it’s one of the sort of accidents that Halo was designed to help with because it provides more space for the driver once the car is upside down,

“You may have seen some of the tests we did during the prove-out phase of the Halo involved putting the car on its top with a Halo and making sure the driver could actually get out of the car.

“That was one of the things we wanted to make sure was still possible.”