Justin Wilson’s accident at the ABC Supply 500 event at Pocono comes at an awkward time for the Verizon IndyCar Series. The helmet blow suffered by the Briton from a piece of flying bodywork on Sunday took place one week before Derrick Walker, the series’ president of competition, is scheduled to depart IndyCar. And without an immediate successor in place, the series finds itself with a renewed urgency to consider safety advances to prevent future helmet strikes, and the need to recruit the person who’ll inherit Walker’s role as IndyCar’s safety leader.
Walker, who joined IndyCar in 2013, has led the series’ various initiatives on safety with the current Dallara DW12 chassis. Of the other top-tier responsibilities carried by IndyCar’s president of competition, Walker was tasked with shaping the next-generation Indy car and whatever safety or technology advancements it might contain.
That car – which is tentatively scheduled for introduction in 2018 or ’19 – is needed now more than ever, and with Wilson’s jarring impact serving as a painful reminder of what can go wrong, IndyCar’s soft target date for the DW12’s replacement must change. A firm action plan and timeline needs to be established.
The strike Wilson experienced from a heavy piece of bodywork shed from Sage Karam’s crash isn’t the first of its kind. With the basic design of many racing cars in mind, the risk – and reality – of direct blows to a driver’s exposed head have been present since the first organized motor races were held 120 years ago.
It happens in open-top sports cars and, in the most recent and unforgettable cases of Dan Wheldon and Jules Bianchi, can lead to tragic outcomes in open-wheel racing. The calls for enhanced cockpit safety have risen since Wheldon was hit by a fence pole during his fatal crash at Las Vegas in 2011, and again after Bianchi succumbed to the helmet blow he received after hitting a crane in Japan last year. Of all the solutions being offered to protect the next Wheldon, Bianchi, and Wilson in this instance, the addition of a jet fighter-style canopy is by far the most popular suggestion.
As Walker told RACER in September of 2014, the series was interested in evaluating canopies as a safety improvement for Indy cars.
“It is being considered; it’s been on my radar ever since I came to IndyCar,” he said. “I’ve had discussions with Dallara about trying to design a partial canopy – not a fully enclosed, but a partial one that would serve as a deflector for debris that comes at the driver.”
Walker also outlined the investigative process that would be involved.
“It’s going to take developing a model of it and putting it into the simulator and see what would be the shape of it for the visibility of the driver,” he continued. “It’s going to take some development with a super plastics company or a special armored glass-type material to actually be able to put something that could do the job that we’re looking for.”
IndyCar’s eventual exploration into the concept resulted in Walker changing his stance during an interview with RACER‘s David Malsher this past May. Asked if and why he’d altered his opinion on the viability of canopies, Walker said:
“Yes, because of the chances of a driver getting trapped in there if the structure is distorted or upside down, after an accident. The fact is, it’s the front portion of the cockpit directly in front of the driver’s helmet that is the part that’s doing all the work – the screen, if you want to call it that. Debris doesn’t tend to go up and then straight down. The bit above the head in a closed cockpit is about aerodynamics, not safety. So I’m more in favor of building a stronger, higher screen from the dashboard area, to deflect parts coming at the driver. It’s not a failsafe system – there isn’t one, because every system has its drawbacks. However, it is a big step forward from the current arrangement.”
It leaves IndyCar without an immediate answer on how to protect its drivers from helmet-based contact, and as history has shown, the risks aren’t limited to ovals. IndyCar drivers reach speeds exceeding 150mph at every track on the calendar, making a situation like Wilson experienced at Pocono a possibility this weekend at Sonoma Raceway and again throughout 2016 unless an aggressive commitment to find a solution is made.
As simple as it might be to suggest bolting on canopies, partial canopies, or a deflector-style system as Walker mentioned, making any changes would require a bespoke design, extensive testing, and ongoing development of an IndyCar-specific safety device that does not currently exist. Before a solution can be identified, IndyCar needs to arrive at a conclusion that a solution is required.
Pocono, like Las Vegas 2011, should become a turning point for IndyCar. Had the bodywork flying off Karam’s car gone one inch to the left or right, Justin might be sitting at home with his wife and daughters. For reasons unknown, it didn’t, and we’re left with the dear man in a coma. Although it’s far too soon to expect a detailed response from IndyCar’s upper brass, I can only hope Wilson’s accident isn’t treated as a fluke – a one-in-a-million scenario – that doesn’t demand a call to action.
Walker, the series’ greatest safety advocate, is days away from leaving, and from various conversations I’ve had on safety prior to Wilson’s incident, it’s clear the series has a lot of ground to cover in a short amount of time. Walker’s pending loss, and the void he’ll create on IndyCar’s safety initiatives, is an undeniable concern. The first commitment, which drivers would surely welcome, is an investment by IndyCar, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, or their parent Hulman & Company organization, into open-cockpit safety research.
Just as IMS led the way on the funding and creation of SAFER Barriers (RIGHT: helping to minimize the impact at Pocono for Marco Andretti), a new dedication to advancing Indy car driver safety is long overdue. That’s not to say IndyCar hasn’t moved the ball in recent years, but it’s time to gain big yardage instead of settling for inches.
An array of updates and improvements have been made to the spec DW12 during four years of competition, and most have come after the series and Dallara learned from a bad crash. Both parties have been keen to make detail upgrades as needs have been exposed, but they’ve been in reaction to unforeseen problems.
Taking more ambitious strides – one that reaches for tomorrow’s great safety advancements – is where IndyCar must head.
Chassis manufacturers like Dallara come and go, and while the Italian firm – and many others – can help the series to take those next steps, only IMS and IndyCar can serve as stewards for the cars that carry their name. And tacking on more items to a Dallara design that took form at the beginning of the decade isn’t the final answer.
I’m sure some improvements can be made to the DW12, which had additional anti-intrusion panels attached to the cockpit after Wilson and Sebastien Bourdais were injured in separate crashes in 2013. The DW12 also had the mounting position for the brake and throttle pedals moved after Dario Franchitti’s crash the same year. A pair of crashes at Indy in 2012 triggered the DW12’s first significant safety revisions as IndyCar and Dallara developed a modified floor attachment system that was less rigid and deformed more in heavy side impacts. And with James Hinchcliffe’s frightening crash at Indy this year, front suspension updates were made to reduce the likelihood of cockpit intrusions. A number of material improvements have been made recently with the cockpit head surround devices, as well.
IndyCar and Dallara address problems as they are exposed, but helmet strikes are a universal problem in open-wheel racing, and demand a different treatment. In light of the impact Wilson received at Pocono, the preventative measures to consider aren’t so much about Dallara’s DW12, but rather, the general design and safety principles that are accepted in Indy car.
If the series was waiting for a reason to step back, assess its existing chassis standards, and bring together the brightest creative and engineering minds to take a giant leap forward, they’ve been handed the perfect reason to search for true innovation.
Is it a canopy? Is it a roll cage? Is it a force field? We don’t know – and won’t know – until someone at IndyCar, or IMS, or Hulman & Company decides to make a new investment in the future.
Among the full-time field of IndyCar drivers, 2014 Indy 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay has often been the most vocal advocate for cockpit safety advancements. His thoughts on the topic of exposed helmets and contact with barriers from September last year now sounds somewhat prophetic.
“Unfortunately, you think back to what happened with Dan [Wheldon], and if that happened again, it would be the only priority,” he said. “Dario [Franchitti] got lucky because the bottom of his car hit the fence. Mikhail [Aleshin] got lucky because the bottom of his car hit the fence. If we’re racing on superspeedways with catch fencing, I fear we’re just playing the odds until we have something protecting our heads. It’s a scary thing to say.”
And with the 100th Indy 500 set for May of 2016, racing on open-wheel’s biggest stage – or anywhere else – without an uncompromising safety R&D plan and a new chassis timeline isn’t an option.
In times like these, this is where we look to IndyCar for leadership. This is where the series needs to break out of its reactive mindset and commit to a proactive strategy to safeguard its drivers. IndyCar cannot prevent every type of accident or injury from happening. Waiting for a new chassis to solve the problem in 2018 or 2019 isn’t acceptable. For Justin’s sake, and for all of the current and future IndyCar drivers, the time for action is here and now.
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