Guanyu Zhou’s roll bar was totally destroyed after the Alfa Romeo’s first impact with the asphalt after an accident with George Russell and Pierre Gasly.
As his car slid upside down around the track, Zhou was unharmed thanks to the Halo before the car reached the gravel run-off and flipped to end up stuck between the tire barrier and the crowd fence. .
Alfa Romeo is the only team on the grid to sport a “blade-type or blade-style” anti-roll structure, a design that is normally more aerodynamically beneficial.
The FIA launched an investigation shortly after the crash, and the issue was also discussed at Thursday’s meeting between Formula 1 team technical directors at the FIA’s technical advisors committee, along with the issue of porpoising .
Referring to the meeting, the FIA said on Friday that “the TAC also analyzed and discussed Guanyu Zhou’s serious accident at Silverstone.”
“The teams have accepted the introduction of more stringent measures for roll bars for 2023. And the FIA is committed to completing the relevant analyzes and communicating to the teams the new requirements for better roll bar safety.”
The 2022 technical regulation article says: “The main structure must pass a static load test whose details can be found in article 13.3.1. In addition, each team must supply detailed calculations showing that it is capable of supporting that same load. when applied in a forward direction.
Article 13.3.1 contains more details on how the tests for the F1 roll bar must be carried out and the loads they must withstand.
Among other things, it remains to be seen whether one of the investigation’s findings could trigger a ban on designs like Alfa Romeo ‘s.
AlphaTauri technical director Jody Egginton confirmed last weekend at the Austrian GP that this was going to be a topic of discussion following Zhou ‘s crash.
“I think that would really be welcome. So we’ll sit down at the next TAC and talk about it, and I’m sure the FIA and Alfa Romeo will have their say,” Egginton said when asked by Motorsport.com for his thoughts on the accident.
“And I’m sure we’ll have a sensible conversation, to see where we want to go.”
Referring to Alfa Romeo’s design choice for its roll bar, Egginton said: “The last time I was involved in a project that carried such a roll bar, I think it was in 2011. And I remember the reasons for it, they were specific.”
“Obviously we all pass the same tests, it’s a requirement. But I guess these are the issues that are going to be discussed at the TAC, to see what we do from now on and what the FIA’s opinion is.”
Red Bull chief engineer Paul Monaghan confirmed that all teams could learn from the Silverstone crash.
“I think it would be a little remiss of us not to pay attention to what has happened,” Monaghan said. “We have a TAC around the corner, so I’m pretty sure the FIA will show us their investigation, surely with the help of Alfa Romeo.”
“We are open to being asked questions about it, we want to help as much as we can, for the benefit of the category.”
“I prefer to wait for the FIA to share the data on what exactly happened, so that we can establish a new method for the load test. Is there a single criterion by which we can evaluate all the cars in the same way? cars would hold it the same or not?
“It is something that must be thoroughly reviewed before making any assumptions,” he concluded.
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