MONZA, Italy -- Max Verstappen feels the arguments around the role Halo played in protecting Charles Leclerc during his Belgian Grand Prix crash have been overblown.
At the start of the race in Spa Nico Hulkenberg missed his braking point and slammed into the back of Fernando Alonso's McLaren. That sent Alonso's car over the top of Leclerc's Sauber and replays which have emerged since the race show the role the Halo played in deflecting it away.
After that race former F1 drivers Felipe Massa and Nico Rosberg voiced their belief the Halo had saved a life, although the FIA is launching a full investigation into the accident before saying either way.
Halo was a controversial topic in the early part of the season having been made mandatory by the FIA but was back on the agenda during Thursday's media day at Monza, host of this weekend's Italian Grand Prix. Red Bull driver Verstappen was quick to point out the Halo actually added more of another car which could be hit.
"I honestly think it looked worse than it actually was, because the car never vertically drops on someone else," Verstappen said. "We would always skid over the top.
"But because the Halo is sticking out so much, of course it gets hit at one point. The more you build in front of a driver, the more chance you can get hit. I think even if the Halo wouldn't be there, he wouldn't have been hit anyway. I think they made it a bit too dramatic."
Verstappen's teammate Daniel Ricciardo said the incident was a good reminder of why the FIA implemented it in the first place.
"I was always for the head protection," he said. "I don't think any of us were for the look of it.
"I was definitely always one to say, especially after [Justin] Wilson's crash, about doing something. I'm for it, or still am when you see what happened. [Brendon] Hartley's onboard was the most telling. You can see Alonso coming in from the side, it looked like he was coming over the top. It was going to be very close if the Halo wasn't there and it did what it was supposed to do.
"It's nice for the people who didn't support it, maybe, we've got proof that it likely saved Charles probably a very serious injury. Over time... they don't look as ugly now as they did in Albert Park. It did well. It did very well last week."