By Site Staff (22/02/03)
February 22 2003

Toyota driver, Olivier Panis, has signed his name onto the growing list of Formula 1 drivers who are not happy with the controversial Head And Neck Safety (HANS) device. The wearing of this device is supposed to be compulsory from this years' Australian Grand Prix. The Frenchman tested the device during the team's openning day of the recent Barcelona test. HANS is a safety device which tethers the drivers crash helmet to his shoulders and is designed to reduce head movement in the event of a collision.

Panis described wearing HANS as "very, very painful." He joins Sauber's Nick Heidfeld and BAR's Jacques Villeneuve, among others, to voice disquiet about using the device. There has even been talk that some drivers will choose the boycott the rule, under the grounds that it does nothing to enhance their safety and is an interference to cockpit comfort.

He said: 'It is very, very painful so I'm not 100 percent sure about using it.'

Max Mosely was pressed for comment this week, after Panis's words, and said that his Paris-based authority intends to plow ahead with the mandatory application of HANS given its green-light at the safety commission and after two years of notice.

2002 World Champion, Michael Schumacher, has urged the FIA to be cautious over the introduction of this safety measure. "It is, for sure, much safer to use it than not to use it," the German said recently. "We have just to see if it is comfortable for every driver to be used this year."