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This article first appeared in GP Racing magazine.
Minutes after the FIA announced, last July, its decision to mandate the use of the halo head-protection device for 2018, the Twittersphere went into meltdown.
Amid the looping memes of Luke Skywalker howling disbelief into the ether and repeated images of flip-flops pasted onto chassis tops, fans also verbally vented their fury. "F1 feels the need to do something for the sake of doing something," read one. "Can we ban the FIA for bringing the sport into disrepute?" fumed another. Many more simply responded via the pithy hashtag #fuckhalo.
Dotted amongst the splenetic outpourings, however, were a number of more accepting opinions, with a few voices insisting that driver safety had to be the paramount concern.
"I consider myself an F1 purist but nothing should get in the way of driver safety," wrote one fan - admittedly a somewhat lonely voice.
