Whiting dismisses driver confusion with halo

F1's race director Charlie Whiting says that it will not be difficult to tell the difference between the drivers this season despite the introduction of the halo. The cockpit protection system will be used in 2018, as the FIA looks to boost driver safety.

However, Haas driver Kevin Magnussen believes that people won't be able to tell who is who during a race, due to the halo partially blocking the helmet: "When the whole field is going into the first corner you’re not going to have a clue who is who,” he said.

But Whiting doesn't believe that distinguishing one driver from another will be such a difficulty. He pointed out that the camera colours and enlarged race numbers will make it easier for fans to identify a driver, rather than relying on their helmet design.

"I’ve always personally felt it’s much easier to try and look at the colour of the on-board cameras,” he said. "Max (Verstappen) and Daniel (Ricciardo), for example, don’t look dissimilar [with crash helmets on].

“Last year it was much easier with those two cars because the numbers were very prominent, which they weren’t until last year. That actually worked quite well.

“We’ve made sure that all the numbers on the cars are in exactly the same places and the cameras will be black for the first car and all yellow for the second car. I’m fairly convinced that fans won’t need to resort to try and identify drivers helmet colours to know who’s in the car.”