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During the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, Formula 1 driver for Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda dropped a pair of glasses with a camera under his visor to record a lap of the circuit from his own perspective.
The video was recorded as part of an installation lap during one of the weekend’s practice sessions, and Gasly can be heard communicating his location on the track through his radio to the pit wall, presumably to calibrate the team’s GPS and other tracking equipment.
It gives a clear idea of how high the driver’s eye level sits when in the car and just how claustrophobic racing on the streets of Monaco can be. Likewise, it demonstrates that the visual obstruction by the “halo” safety structure is minimal, and visibility is arguably still better than that of LMP1 cars.
Gasly would qualify 10th for the Monaco Grand Prix, and finish seventh, taking home his second haul of points in the season, pushing him up to eleventh in the drivers’ championship, and his team seventh among constructors.
Across the Atlantic, IndyCar too plays with visor cams on occasion, and has uploaded sporadic videos of on-track action taken from this perspective. One such video was taken from inside Graham Rahal’s helmet during the start of this year’s Indianapolis 500, which was also held on the weekend of the Monaco Grand Prix.
Why these camera angles are not utilized in broadcasts is unclear. Despite the relatively low resolution, the jostling and field of view communicate a sense of speed and proximity with other cars. Maybe we’ll see something like this in the future for F1 TV broadcasts.
