Todt on the Halo: “They told me it wasn’t F1-like. But without that protection Grosjean would have been beheaded”

Todt and the introduction of the Halo Jean Todt was a central character of Formula 1 who changed his skin in just a few years. The Frenchman entered the paddock in 1993 as general director of Ferrari: those were years in which the Circus seemed to have found serenity (in the last decade no driver had died in a race weekend), but the tragic Imola weekend in 1994 brought the pinnacle of motorsport back to earth, imposing drastic changes on the safety side. Once his long experience in Maranello ended, Todt became president of the FIA. During his tenure, the last fatal racing accident occurred, that of Jules Bianchi in 2014. Just like the tragedy of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger, the Frenchman’s death also forced the Federation to make a change of pace on safety, an area in which a lot had been done but evidently not enough. It was Todt himself who promoted and introduced the Halo in 2018 to protect the pilots’ heads. Todt’s words “That accident was devastating for everyone: for the family, for the sport, even for my son, who was his manager and loved him like a brother”, said the Frenchman on the High Performance podcast. “We worked even harder, also because already in 2009 there was an accident involving Felipe Massa, who was hit by a spring which almost destroyed his head. I told myself that the time had come to act and so a proposal was made to me on the Halo.” “At the time, the person responsible for this program was Laurent Mekies, who now runs Red Bull,” he added. “When the proposal was submitted to the teams and drivers, many opposed it. They said ‘This is not Formula 1’. So I asked the engineers if this solution would protect the head better. They said yes, and so we introduced it. Romain Grosjean, immediately after the decision was announced, commented that it was a sad day for Formula 1. In 2020, however, in Bahrain the Halo saved his life. Without it, he would have been beheaded.”