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Originally Posted by Nikki Katz
I hate not having updates like this, though it's of course understandable why. Whatever the outcome of this, the series does need to at least consider closed cockpits now. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have helped Wheldon in the slightest, but possibly it would in this new incident (also with Hinchcliffe last year where he was injured from a fairly innocuous accident). It would create new issues though - aside from the issues with quick extraction, presumably it'll get really hot in there?
I don't know if the series still has much money for a new car after only a few years with the current one though - I know it's supposed to be in the pipeline anyway, but everything's gone a bit quiet.
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There's already a form of motorsport that has been using closed cockpits for some time now: dragboat racing. While still a very dangerous form of racing, mandating the fighter jet-style closed cockpits has saved a lot of lives.
If IndyCar is the first open-wheel series to take the plunge, I imagine the car would be built around a similar type of "cocoon" as we see in dragboat racing. Ventilation would need some sort of clever solution, but they'd be able to make it work. And I'm confident Wheldon would have survived had they been using such a cockpit.