Andy Mellor, FIA Institute’s Head of Technical Affairs, said: “For us to be successful we need to get high quality safety products out into the marketplace in large numbers so we can offer the best protection to the most competitors. Therefore it is essential to maintain close relationships with the industry and the companies that make these products.”

Members include the major companies involved in manufacturing safety equipment such as racing seats, harnesses, helmets, head and neck restraint systems, drivers race suits and clothing. For more specialist applications, ILG members include manufacturers of products ranging from safety barriers to Formula One wheel tethers.

The May-June ILG meetings began with workshops looking at accident data recorders (ADRs) and fire extinguishers for cars and circuits.

The ADR workshop examined the best strategy to deliver ADRs to championships beyond Formula One, the World Rally Championship and GP2, which are currently using them. The workshop brought together championships with an interest in using ADRs and the manufacturers who supply them.

Following the meeting, it was decided that the FIA Institute would put together a programme to support up to 10 championships including World Touring Car and GT. Through the FIA’s close links with national sporting associations the programme will supply ADRs to the British and German Touring Car and Formula Three championships. The Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) will also join the programme with its top two touring car championships.

Mellor said: “We are planning an initial roll out of ADRs for up to 300 cars. We are now negotiating with the suppliers so we can put together a low-cost package to service these events.”

Ultimately, the data from the ADRs will be collected by the FIA and will be used for to enable further safety developments in future. As such, the benefits will self-propagate because the more ADRs there are on the market then the more safety statistics will help to improve research at the central source.

The fire extinguisher workshop offered a similarly positive meeting looking at the development areas for fire protection in the future. Following the meeting the FIA Institute agreed to set up a research programme to look at the various flammable substances in use in motor sport such as fuels, oils and hydraulic fluids as well as new technology such as bio-fuels. These will be assessed against the state-of-the-art extinguisher products on the market. In this way the group can recommend the most appropriate extinguishers and extinguishants for each championship.

Other safety devices examined by ILG workshops in late June included head and neck restraints, youth helmets, safety harnesses and race seats. Two other workshops looked at Karting safety and motor sport laboratories.

The ILG is the most recent addition to the FIA Institute’s structure and offers the manufacturers the chance to become partners in the Institute’s various activities.

This is necessary to enable the FIA Institute’s working groups to maintain a dialogue with the manufacturers and deliver standards that are appropriate to the market. The findings of the research must be cost-effective and of the right standard for the manufacturers and vendors that produce and sell the items. The ILG helps to guide those standards.