Red Bull drivers at odds over Halo

Halo is back in the spotlight after Charles Leclerc’s “lucky” escape at Spa last Sunday, however, Max Verstappen doubts it did anything to protect the driver.

Leclerc crashed out of the Belgian Grand Prix when Fernando Alonso’s McLaren came flying over his head having been punted from behind by Nico Hulkenberg.

The Sauber’s Halo took a lot of the impact with Leclerc saying he feels “lucky” to walk away from that.

Verstappen, though, doubts Halo saved him.

“The car never really virtually drops on top of someone else, it would always skid over the top,” he said. “But because Halo was sticking out so much, of course it gets hit.

“The more you build in front of a driver, the more chance it can get hit. I think even if the Halo hadn’t been there he wouldn’t have been hit anyway so I think they made it too dramatic.”

His team-mate Daniel Ricciardo has a different take, saying it would have been “very close” had the Sauber not been fitted with the Halo.

He said: “When you see what happened, I think [Brendon] Hartley’s onboard was the most telling one. You can see Alonso coming from the side, it looked like he was coming over the top but it came in from the side. It was going to be very close if the Halo wasn’t there.

“I think it did what it had to do and I think it’s nice for people who didn’t support it maybe because at least now we’ve got proof that it likely saved Charles probably a very serious injury.

“I feel I was always ‘for’ the head protection. I don’t think any of us were ‘for’ the look of it.

“I was always one to say, especially after [Justin] Wilson’s crash in Indy[Car], I think it was in Monza that year, it was pretty clear. I was a bit vocal about doing something.”