FIA safety delegate Laurent Mekies has confirmed the governing body is following and working with IndyCar on the development of the windshield cockpit protection which was tested this week.
While the FIA has already gone ahead with the implementation of the controversial Halo device, which will be seen in Formula 1, F2 this year and Formula E from 2019, the American single-seater series has been developing the windshield for a potential introduction some point this year.
That prospect took a good step forward too after Scott Dixon completed a successful test using the windshield in daytime, dusk and nighttime conditions at the ISM Raceway last week.
“Everything looks very good, I’m very happy,” the driver reported back afterwards.
“When you look through something like that, it does change,” Dixon acknowledged, with Sebastian Vettel suffering dizziness during a one-lap run with a similar design called the Shield last year.
“Your brain and eyes just need to catch up with it. The longer I ran, I got more adapted to it.”
With the Halo generating so much backlash compared to a somewhat positive response to the look of the windshield, F1 fans are now hoping it could signal an alternative for the future.
“Of course we have seen it,” FIA’s Mekies confirmed to Racer. “As far as safety is concerned we work closely with all other motorsport stakeholders.
“It’s very good that IndyCar is putting some energy in trying to develop solutions and maybe it can complement the work we’re doing one day.”
As for whether he thought the windshield was something that could be integrated to F1, he added: “I think it’s quite clear today what the advantages and the downsides are of the solutions.
“You choose what you try to protect against and after that, you have to accept if something more than that happens it won’t help, or not as much as is needed.
“You might remember that we had ourselves scanned different protection levels,” he pointed out. “The Shield we tried at Silverstone last year had a slightly reduced protection level. It’s a matter of finding a good compromise.”