Mar 28: Ferrari star Rubens Barrichello says Formula One bosses are wrong to insist drivers wear the Hans head and neck safety device. Barrichello was allowed an exemption on medical grounds in Malaysia last weekend but motorsport's governing body, the FIA, has said that all drivers must wear the support from now on.
The FIA has ruled that teams must replace drivers who are unable to wear the equipment for medical or other reasons. "It sounds like a joke to me," Barrichello told Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper at a test in Barcelona.
"OK, I'll use it. But I say again, taking this attitude seems a bit of a wind-up. I don't understand how you can force someone to use a collar that causes pain.
"It would be like carrying out an interview with a microphone that doesn't work. But it's a futile discussion. Now I must use it and that's it."
The Hans device is mandatory for the first time this season in F1.
But Barrichello partly blamed it for his crash in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
He finished second in Malaysia but Briton Justin Wilson was taken to hospital when his Hans slipped and pinched a nerve, temporarily paralysing his arm.
The 24-year-old rookie Minardi driver has said he is likely to be fit for next week's race in Brazil. Bureau Report