BUDAPEST, Hungary -- After hearing the FIA's arguments for the introduction of the Halo cockpit protection device, Lewis Hamilton is now willing to accept its introduction next year.
Previously Hamilton had been one of Halo's biggest critics, but after viewing an FIA presentation during Friday's driver briefing at the Hungaroring -- which showed how Halo would have helped in a number of previous accidents -- he says he can now see the need for it to be introduced.
"I paid very close attention to the great briefing we were given on it," he said. "I take safety very seriously and I think the interesting thing, while it doesn't look great and doesn't look in the racing spirit, you can't ignore the fact that the chances are 17 percent better of saving a driver's life in the incidents that have happened in the past.
"However, we still have to continue to improve and at some stage we would have to close the canopy completely because that would be 100 percent. There were still some examples, like Felipe [Massa]'s accident here in Hungary in 2009, where it wouldn't have stopped him from being injured. I think with Justin [Wilson's fatal accident in IndyCar], I believe they said it wouldn't have saved him because it was a pointy object from above, but a closed canopy would have perhaps.
"You can't completely ignore it. If there is any way to make it look a little bit better then fine, but if not then it's a safety thing which we have to accept."
Hamilton went on to confirm that he now sees safety as the priority over aesthetics.
"It looked terrible [on the Ferrari in testing], but you can't ignore the fact that if one of us is going to have a 17 percent better chance of surviving a serious incident ...
"We have to continue to move forward, but I've not driven it, so all I can say just from looking at it is that it doesn't look like it belongs on a Formula One racing car."