Christian Horner has a stinging verdict on Halo

Red Bull will certainly be up in arms against the introduction of Halo, should they ever get a chance to vote against it.

Halo hasn’t won many fans over at Red Bull so far. First, Pierre Gasly ended up calling it weird, if passably unobtrusive. Now, his team principal has gone the extra mile and said that he would vote against the protection device if it is put to the vote in F1’s rule-making bodies. Unlike Gasly, he’s definitively decided that he can’t learn to live with it.

“Personally, I’m not a big fan of the Halo. I think that it’s an inelegant solution to the problem it’s trying to deal with.

“I’d prefer there to be more research time taken to do the job properly, rather than rushing something through that may have other consequences. So I am not a big fan of the Halo and the limitations it has. I certainly wouldn’t vote in favour of it at the moment.”

Christian Horner

He may have some ulterior motives for his adamant opposition, however. Red Bull’s been trying to champion its own Aeroscreen solution for cockpit protection, which FIA ditched in favour of Halo. So it’s not completely unexpected for him to have a bone to pick with the chosen protection device. He certainly hasn’t been specific about what his reservations with Halo might be outside of that.

Whatever his reasoning is, his vote is going to count for a lot. FIA has been hoping that the final on-track and extrication tests over the last two weeks might lead to a decision by the end of July. But if even one team votes against Halo this late in the season, its introduction next year will have to be vetoed altogether. Of course, if FIA feels like it has reasonable safety grounds to force the decision through, it could. But we’re sure no one wants to deal with the fall-out and resentment that could bring about.