Closed F1 Cockpits 'Doable' by 2017

Austin: Three designs for closed cockpits for Formula One cars will be tested next month, the sport's ruling body, the International Motoring Federation (FIA) confirmed on Sunday.

The FIA's safety director Laurent Mekies said: "We are trying to find concepts that can do the job - and we will find a way that can deal with the other matters like visibility and extraction - so we are scanning quite a broad range of solutions.

"We are at the research stage and we cannot make anything before 2017, but if we get good results then that is a doable date."

He explained that a key concern is finding a way of protecting the drivers without reducing their visibility or making it difficult for safety staff to lift them out of the car in the event of an accident.

The FIA revealed also that it is testing high-speed cameras that will be mandatory next year for improving accident research into how a driver's helmet moves during a crash.