Just about every driver that competed in this year's Indy 500 and Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway wore some sort of sort of head and neck restraint system such as the HANS or Hutchens system to reduce the risk of injuries.

But not a single driver wore such a device for this year's United States Grand Prix. That will change in 2003, however, as the HANS device becomes mandatory for all Formula One drivers.

Formula One prides itself as being at the forefront of safety, but there is one aspect on the safety front where F1 has, for various reasons, lagged slightly behind series such as IRL, CART and NASCAR, where use of the HANS or some sort of head and neck restraint system in the races has become quite common -- especially in the last two years. A head and neck restraining system is now mandatory in NASCAR's Winston Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck series, ASA and ARCA.

The HANS (Head And Neck Support) system was invented Dr. Robert Hubbard of Michigan State University in collaboration with his brother-in-law and sports car driver Jim Downing. DaimlerChrysler is now also involved with the project.

The objective of the HANS system is to reduce the chance of serious injury caused by the violent movement of the unrestrained head and helmet combination in an accident. The device is worn on the upper body under the shoulder straps of the seat belt. It is connected to the helmet by two flexible tethers that allow normal movement of the head (left, right, up, and down), but limit extreme head motions and neck loads.

In the spacious cockpits of a stock car or even that of an IRL or CART car, drivers have had an easier time adapting to the HANS device compared to F1 drivers.

Neck injuries have been greatly reduced in F1 in recent years by vast improvements in the cockpit sides and rear headrests of high impact foam. But the HANS system has not been adapted until now.

Testing and tweaking

	Montoya

While other F1 teams have used the HANS device during testing, Sauber Petronas so far has been the only team to use the system during a grand prix weekend. Both Williams BMW drivers tried it at a recent test session in Italy.

"It wasn't actually strapped to the helmet because we weren't ready for that stage," Williams BMW's technical director Patrick Head said, "but Ralf (Schumacher) was pretty happy with it. A single seater race car, particularly a Formula One car, is much more difficult to an Indycar or a NASCAR car because you have got to deal with Monaco, with the driver literally looking sideways at the hairpin and that is not what happens on a high speed oval."

Williams has produced five versions of the HANS system to try to make their drivers comfortable, but Juan Pablo Montoya hasn't been able to adapt as easily as teammate Ralf Schumacher.

"First, Juan has got a very short neck," Head explained, "and secondly, when he drives, whereas Ralf articulates from the shoulder, when Juan Pablo turns the wheel his shoulder comes up hard against the helmet, so we have got to find a structure that is strong enough to take a very high longitudinal load in which we have no cross sectional area. So it is going to be a serious problem to work out how to produce a HANS device that will work for Juan Pablo whereas we have certainly achieved that for Ralf."

Other F1 drivers have various views on the device.

"I find it very uncomfortable to drive with," said Renault's Jenson Button. "I can do one lap and my neck and arms are aching. It is really strange. I don't know what it does, but it must sit on certain muscles or nerves. Whatever we have tried, it ends up being the same. We can't get a good feeling with it. It is a safety device and we need to work with it, but if we can't drive with it, we can't drive with it."

Eddie Irvine says he has no discomfort wearing a HANS.

"I don't have an issue with it because I have a long neck," he said. "It is people like Villeneuve who don't have any neck that have a problem. I tried it a long time ago and I don't have a problem with it."

Regardless if they like wearing a HANS or not, the F1 drivers better get used to it because it is mandatory in 2003.

"This is only my opinion: Clearly they are restrictive on mobility up until the point you have an accident, and then you would love to have one on!" said McLaren Mercedes director Ron Dennis. "This is a safety device. I can remember as a kid not liking to put a seatbelt on in the car, but once you get into to the routine then you adapt and are placed in a safer position. The mandatory introduction is a good thing."

The HANS system has been mandatory in the German DTM touring car championship for three years.

"Bernd Schneider (a DTM champion) says 'For me it is like a safety belt,'" said Mercedes Benz racing boss Norbert Haug. "Then (former F1 driver) Jean Alesi came and said 'I cannot drive with this. I give you back half of my retainer if I do not have to wear it!' Bernd Schneider said: 'Wait a while and you will get used to it and after a while you will not want to drive without it. It is like a seatbelt -- you need to get used to it.'"

This winter the F1 teams will have to devote some of their testing time to dialing in a perfect fit of the HANS system for their drivers. That has not always been the case in the past.

"I am a little bit surprised at their lack of commitment and enthusiasm for the device, and I think that has not helped when we have tried to run tests at the circuit," said Pat Symonds, the Executive Director of Engineering of Renault's F1 team. "The drivers have not been as cooperative as I would have liked to have seen, but it is moving ahead. Like everything in motor racing we do it just in time. It will be ready for next year, but it will be just in time."