Through the letterbox
Having been critical of the seeming inability of drivers competing in the FIA’s ‘road to F1’ single-seater championships – including in the premier category itself – to stay within track limits, onboard footage recently from Alpine F1 driver, Fernando Alonso’s, helmet camera actually shocked me. Reclined so low in the monocoque, with the high side protection and bulky halo strut immediately in front, it was akin to looking through a letterbox. At 200+ mph. Valentino Rossi made the same observation when he swapped car and bike with Lewis Hamilton in a recent TV feature. Previous video from cameras mounted on the roll hoop structure revealed no such limitation on sighting the car into and through high-speed corners. It’s reasonable to assume this ‘handicap’ applies to F2, F3 etc as well. However, as…