FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[darwin dali]

Formula One cars are now fitted with a cockpit mounted 'Medical Warning Light'.

The light is designed to turn on after an impact of a certain size, warning trackside marshals and doctors of the possible severity of injuries and requiring the driver to present himself to the medical centre for checks.

Anybody knows more about this?

[madbrad]

I only saw the same amount as you.

[R00DIT]

its a good idea but i cant see how a light can identify driver injuries

[darwin dali]

It's probably based on sensors that measure the force involved during the impact (g-forces and such), which then is used to guestimate the likelihood for injuries, trauma, etc.

[madbrad]

I guess it just switches on with a certain G force of impact. The impact might be obvious to TV viewers or race control, but maybe the marshalls and the medical car people didn't see anything. Plus something to force the driver to get attention, that can't be bad.

[darwin dali]

Yeah, this is all guesswork. I'm surprised that it 'just' came up. There was no discussion going on that I'm aware of. There's no info around on specs, etc. I mean when they introduced the HANS device, it was discussed at length way ahead of the introduction and we had a pretty good idea what was coming...