Advance in F1 helmet safety

Prototype helmet may radically improve driver safety

By BBC Sport Online's Andrew Benson in Monaco.

Motorsport's governing body has invented a new helmet which it claims will make massive improvements to safety both in Formula One and on the public roads.

A prototype of the new helmet was presented at the Monaco Grand Prix by Max Mosley, president of the FIA, which runs the sport.

Mosley claimed that it can absorb 70% more energy in an impact, as well as being "more than 30%" more resistant to penetration by sharp objects and "up to 30%" more effective at preventing rotational injuries.

Max Mosley advocates the new helmet

He also said that it was 15% lighter than the lightest current helmet used by a Grand Prix driver - which, according to the FIA, is Mika Hakkinen's 1.43kg Bell helmet.

The new helmet has been developed jointly by the FIA and the Transport Research Laboratory in Bracknell.

It has an outside shell of carbon composite and "a very cleverly designed inside that spreads the loads," according to Mosley.

The FIA has made the specifications available to any helmet manufacturer that wants them and Mosley said one is interested, although he would not name it.

No more manual labour is involved in making it than a standard helmet

  Max Mosley
FIA president

He said he hoped that the new helmet would "not be significantly more expensive".

And added: "It will require a bigger investment at the beginning because you need an autoclave [an oven that is used to cure carbon-fibre].

"But no more manual labour is involved in making it than a standard helmet.

"Sometimes it is not in the interests of manufacturers to do too much development because it is expensive and it means changing all their production methods.

"But in this case research and development has been done."

Mosley hopes that the new device will become standard fare in motor racing, as well as for motorcyclists on the roads.