Sebastian Vettel will miss 2017 car and is not looking forward to Halo. 2018 will see the introduction of the Halo as a mandatory piece of safety equipment.

Scuderia Ferrari German driver Sebastian Vettel will miss his SF70H car, nicknamed Gina, and is not looking forward to sitting behind a Halo head-protection device next year. In his third season with the Maranello team, Sebastian Vettel mounted a championship challenge against Lewis Hamilton this year but ultimately came up 46 points short of the Mercedes driver in the final standings.

Ahead of the start of the season he nicknamed his Ferrari SF70H ‘Gina’ with the help of his mechanics, and in terms of race wins it stands as the most successful Ferrari since Fernando Alonso’s F10 from 2010.

The team of engineers required to run the complex turbo hybrid engine in the back of the SF70H means it is unlikely to be run regularly now it has been retired, and after driving it for the last time at Wednesday’s Abu Dhabi tyre test, Vettel said he would miss the car.

“Yeah, of course. Nowadays it is not so easy to operate the car so it will be the last time. In the past it was [easy to run them] and every now and then you could go back, with the V8s, but with these power units it’s more complex, it makes no sense. I will miss it, I think it was a fun season and it’s a bit of a shame that it’s over. I would’ve liked to have another five races, then I think we would be in good shape! But yeah, looking forward there’s a lot of stuff going on for next year, so quite excited as well.” – the German driver said, as reported by the German media.

Although 2018 represents another chance to fight for the title, it will also see the introduction of the Halo as a mandatory piece of safety equipment. The titanium structure sits directly in front of the driver to protect him from flying objects, but is widely regarded as an eye sore by fans who are used seeing open cockpits ob Formula One cars.

“I’m not looking forward to it, but it’s part of the game,” Vettel said. “I’m sure we’ll get used to it. I’ve tried now a couple of times, for sure some things need to change, like the start lights on the grid. You need to play around a little bit — but I think we will when we get to next year’s cars. But yeah it’s in the front of your face, in front of your helmet — you get used to it, though. What you need to see, you can still see, otherwise we wouldn’t introduce it.” – Sebastian Vettel concluded.