ISTANBUL, Turkey — Heikki Kovalainen’s accident in the Spanish Grand Prix has raised concerns over the use of stacks of tires as barriers.
While the rows of tires did a good job of slowing his car down, Kovalainen was trapped after his McLaren speared in.
“It’s something that we all should look very carefully at and see if there are better compromises,” Kovalainen said of the tire barriers.
As he wasn’t injured there was no hurry to get him out, but if he had been hurt then the delay could have been a problem.
In the 2001 Belgian Grand Prix, Luciano Burti was trapped when his Prost went into a tire wall. The tires were piled on his head.
“From what I heard about Luciano Burti,” Mark Webber said, “the pressure on his helmet was really, really intense. And because his helmet was pressed against the back of the headrest, his head had nowhere to go. That is a lot of pressure. So we need to look into that.”
Kovalainen’s helmet was scarred by tire marks. But perhaps the new raised cockpit sides helped ease the tires away from his head as they came sliding up the chassis.
From straw bales to catch fencing to tire walls, the ways of slowing a racing car down have improved over the years. But, as Webber points out, there comes a point when too many tires might have an adverse effect. On the other hand, too few tires can also have nasty consequences.
“Tires are a very economical way [for a barrier],” he said. “In terms of bang for your buck, they are pretty good in terms of safety. But you try to put yourself in 20 years time, what will we have then?”
The FIA is looking into using better types of rubber “conveyor belts” attached to the front of the tire stacks, rather than the type currently used.
In 2006, the FIA tried out a new impact-absorbing barrier at Monza that was a similar concept to the SAFER barrier developed by Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the University of Nebraska and now used at all major oval tracks in the USA. But the FIA-type barrier is still being developed.