It's a sad day for F1 - Grosjean on Halo

Romain Grosjean says he is 'shocked' the FIA is forging ahead with the introduction of the 'Halo' for the 2018 F1 season even after several drivers, teams and fans expressed their opposition.

Ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, the FIA confirmed it will next season go ahead and introduce its 'original' cockpit protection device prototype for next season after trials using an alternative 'Shield' concept at Silverstone presented several limitations.

The device has split opinion amongst F1 drivers, with Haas driver and Grand Prix Drivers' Association director Grosjean among the most vocal of those against the device, the position he maintains despite the announcement, which he describes as a 'sad day for F1'.

"Personally, I think it is a sad day for Formula One when it was announced. I am still against it, I still don't think it has a place in Formula One. As a GPDA member and director, and a driver, I need to thank the FIA for all the research. The Halo is a strong device against a lot of cases.

"There are occasions where it can get worse which I am not particularly a fan of. There a few problems that we may have that we haven't thought about. Seeing the starting lights on the grid, no one has tried that, they are always different. Seeing flags on the side and things like that, we need to see a bit more of it."

On Thursday the FIA held a media briefing to give more details into the research that went into decision-making process, but while Grosjean says he doesn't want to stand in the way of safety advances, he says the 'crazy-good' evolution of safety since 1995 is representative enough of the advances.

"There are divided opinions. I think there were drivers trying to get the safety up with the device as soon as possible others trying to get the safety up by other ideas or solutions, that's 100% was onboard with that. With the Halo, there were divided opinions

"I was surprised when I saw it was coming out because the teams say no, the fans say no, the drivers mainly say no and it came out, so it was a bit of a shock so that's why I said it was a sad day for F1.

"I don't want to stop the safety research, because I think it's great, and since 1995 evolution has been crazy-good, but hopefully we'll get better solutions to what we have now.

"Even to see the drivers, we have to keep the same helmet design for the whole year and you don't get to see the drivers anymore, what was the point?"