ASN Safety Bulletin #35 Safety Equipment Guidelines - Helmets & Clothing

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to Issue #35 of the FIA Safety Bulletin. This time we are focusing on two new sets of Safety Equipment Guidelines that form the first in a series the Safety Department is creating to help familiarise scrutineers and competitors with FIA Standards in order to keep them safe on track.

The new sets of standards guidelines – the first of which cover Protective Clothing and Helmets – will bring together all regulations governing equipment into user-friendly and accessible documents. 

FIA safety regulations in relation to equipment are spread across several different sets of regulations, from FIA Standards and FIA Homologation Regulations for Safety Equipment to the International Sporting Code and specific Technical and Sporting Regulations. 

Additionally, as the regulations are carefully written to avoid ‘grey areas’, it means that until now there has been no single, user-friendly manual to help competitors and scrutineers easily understand how they can comply. The two new sets of guidelines, and those to come in the future, do just that. Each one lets drivers know what they must have and how it should be used, or not used, while also providing scrutineers with a handy guide to what to look out for.

1. FIA Standard Guidelines – Protective Clothing. This provides competitors with information on the importance of using the correct competition wear, tips on selecting the right products, explains how to correctly use homologated clothing – including race suits, balaclavas and undergarments – and offers advice on customisation, maintenance as well the correct fitment of accessories such as biometric devices and padding. The scrutineering section, meanwhile, gives officials an overview of pre-event control, including technical lists, the correct positioning of FIA labels, what they should feature and a handy checklist to ensure compliance.

2. FIA Standard Guidelines – Helmets. This follows a similar format, featuring references to all helmet regulations, showing the standards recognised by the FIA and offering advice on selecting the right products and warning competitors about some of the most common, and critical, mistakes made in modifying helmets. Once again, the scrutineers section presents pre-event control advice, with a visual guide to accepted standards.

More sets are planned for the coming months and the FIA Safety Department is currently finalising guideline sets that bring together the regulations around seats, safety harnesses, racing nets, karting clothing, extinguishers, ADR, FHR devices and safety fuel tanks. Each will also be updated as standards are changed and improved. 

These new sets of guidelines are ‘living documents’ and will be updated as new safety updates are implemented and as new regulations are written and applied.

You can visit the FIA.COM Safety News webpage to view the latest guidelines and all prior communications from the FIA Safety Department, including ASN Safety Bulletins and ASN informative notes.

For direct downloads of the two guidelines, please use the following links:

FIA Standard Guidelines - Helmets LINK

FIA Standard Guidelines - Protective Clothing  LINK

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The new sets of standards guidelines – the first of which cover Protective Clothing and Helmets – will bring together all regulations governing equipment into user-friendly and accessible documents. All information can be found on the FIA website at fia.com.

#FIASafety #FIAVisionZero

Best regards,

FIA Safety Department

If you have any topics you would like us to cover in the future bulletins please send your suggestions to the FIA Safety Department.

To read the other articles about the ASN Safety Bulletins, please visit the FIA website. You can also read by clicking here.