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Vettel says he felt ‘dizzy’ running F1 shield

14 July 2017 – Sebastian Vettel has revealed that he felt “a bit dizzy” while driving with Formula 1’s proposed ‘shield’ during the opening practice session for the British Grand Prix.

Formula 1, overseen by the FIA, has been eager to increase head protection in recent years, with the shield the third device to be trialled, after the halo and aeroscreen were assessed in 2016.

Vettel completed an installation lap with the canopy-style device on Friday morning at Silverstone, but believes further work needs to be done in order to refine the shield.

“I don’t think I need to talk about the pros, obviously I know what it’s for,” Vettel commented, when asked for his feedback.

“Cons: I tried it this morning, I got a bit dizzy... forward vision is not very good.

“I think it’s because of the curvature, you get quite a bit of distortion, plus you get quite a bit of downwash down the straight pushing the helmet forward.

“We had a [further] run planned with it, but I didn’t like it, so we took it off.”

The shield is set to be analysed further at the Italian Grand Prix in September, as the FIA pushes to increase head protection for the 2018 campaign.

The planned introduction of the halo, which was extensively assessed during practice and test sessions in 2016, was delayed, and consequently abandoned, with the shield now favoured.

Vettel finished fourth fastest on the first day of practice at Silverstone, behind Ferrari team-mate Kimi Räikkönen and Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.