Jackie Stewart critical of Dale Earnhardt's open faced helmet

[Joe Fan]

During the broadcast of the Daytona 24 Hours on Speedvision, Jackie Stewart was interviewed and he was very critical of Earnhardt's open face helmet, stating that full faced helmets should, at a minimum, be mandatory in all of motorsports. Although I have great respect for Jackie as a driver and what he did to promote safety in F1, I feel his criticism in this regard is somewhat hypocritical and not based on all the facts. Why? First of all, open cockpit cars supply more danger to the driver via flying debris than an open faced helmet does to a driver in a closed roof car. I don't see him campaigning to close the cockpit of F1 cars. Secondly, with a open cockpit car, a full faced helmet is an absolute necessity to protect the driver from flying debris. Finally, Earnhardt believes that a full faced helmet is more dangerous because the chin area of the helmet acts like a lever that can crush the sternum and also help hyperextend and break the neck, whenever the driver is thrown forward in a crash.

Your thoughts?