Mercedes test driver and current GP3 championship leader, George Russell played down fears over the Halo following a first run with the cockpit device during this week’s test in Hungary.
The Briton ran the Halo for two laps for aero testing, as the current world champions became the first to use it since the FIA confirmed its introduction for 2018, a decision met with widespread condemnation.
However, as an objective voice, Russell’s comments were positive for the governing body as he dispelled a main concern many have.
“The Halo was surprising, I had a much better view than I ever imagined,” the 19-year-old claimed. “One very funny positive was that at the end of the day, when the sun was coming down, the Halo actually blocked the sun from my eyes.
“So I actually saw more than I would usually see on a circuit at 5.30pm when the sun is low.
“To be honest, from a drivers’ perspective, when you’re doing a quali lap the visibility is completely fine. The only hindrance could potentially be the start lights, but I was extremely surprised by the Halo and by what I could see.”
The only difficulty Russell did have was regarding the entrance and exit of the car in the garage, however, even this he believes will be a temporary issue.
“It just takes a bit of experience, finding the right techniques, where to put your arms and stuff,” he said. “I struggled initially but towards the end, after a few trial runs, I was fine getting in and out. You can hold on to the Halo as you pull yourself up.
“The only thing is getting your leg into the car, it’s quite high, but I think most people would just have a step to stand on to get in and out of the car.”
As for his own performance, long runs were the main focus for the Mercedes young driver as he completed over 200 laps across the two days and the GP3 race winner in Austria and Silverstone was satisfied with how his running went.
“Most drivers want to be at the top of the timesheets, but us at this test it wasn’t really about that,” he said. “We had our goals set on different things, and we came away from this test learning a lot.
“A couple of the other teams were focusing on low-fuel quali runs and getting to the top of the timesheets had slightly different goals to what we had.
“From our point of view, we took everything away we needed to and had a productive test.”
