Cockpit protection 1996

[Antonov]

After Mika's accident at Adelaide in 1995 (or perhaps even earlier), it was decided to raise the cockpit sides for the 1996 season.

I always wondered why most cars ended up looking like this:




and how Williams and Jordan managed 'to get away' with this:

[Everso Biggyballies]

After Mika's accident at Adelaide in 1995 (or perhaps even earlier), it was decided to raise the cockpit sides for the 1996 season.

Nothing to do with Mika's accident, all to do with Senna Ratzenberger and Wendlinger at Monaco. Mika's injuries were ISTR the steering wheel (in SId Watkins book it refers)

An article here by Peter Wright explains in detail 1995 changes to cars.: Preview of 1995 Formula1 Cars. How the Technical Regulations have influenced design.


I think part of the different treatments might be more aerodynamically influenced. Some went for higher cockpit sides earlier than others, I gues due to different aero philosophies. I do seem to recall some dispute by teams over interpretation of side regulations in 1995/6 in relation to Williams and Jordan's treatment.

[Michkov]

I think the Williams at least got away by having the high cockpit from right point of views. That is from the sides, note the fin just above the elf l. It shades the driver from a side view as in the rules and the low area between it and the cockpit opening helps with airflow to the rear. As EV mentioned, I seem to recall Ferrari getting a bit upset about missing that trick back in the day. Here is a better picture showing the fin



I'm unsure what is going on with the Jordan though. I may be that it has a generally higher sidepod than the other 3 cars, which would make sense with the high and narrow radiator inlets the car has. So it could be just a visual thing and the cockpit is as high as the Bennetton and Ferrari.