Russell says Halo actually helped visibility at times

With the FIA having made clear that the Halo will be mandatory from 2018, Mercedes ran the cockpit protection system for a few laps during this week's post Hungarian GP test.

And although Russell said it was a bit tricky initially to get in the car, he could not believe how much he could see once he was out on track.

"The Halo was surprising, I had a much better view than I ever imagined," he said.

"One very funny positive was that at the end of the day, when the sun was coming down, the Halo actually blocked the sun from my eyes, so I actually saw more than I would usually see on circuit at 5.30pm when the sun is low.

"To be honest, from a drivers' perspective, when you're doing a qualy lap the visibility is completely fine. The only hindrance could potentially be the start lights, but I was extremely surprised by the Halo and by what I could see."

The Mercedes Halo test was the first time that Russell had sat in the car with the device fitted, and he reckoned it would take drivers a bit of getting used to before they got comfortable getting in and out of the cockpits.

"It was tricky to get in and out of the car, it just takes a bit of experience, finding the right techniques, where to put your arms and stuff," he said.

"I struggled initially but towards the end, after a few trial runs, I was fine getting in and out. You can hold on to the Halo as you pull yourself up.

"The only thing is getting your leg into the car, it's quite high. But I think most people would just have a step to stand on to get in and out of the car."

Positive test

Russell completed two solid days of running for Mercedes, and although his programme did not allow him to set headline grabbing times, he was happy with how things had gone.

"Most drivers want to be at the top of the timesheets, but us at this test it wasn't really about that," he said. "We had our goals set on different things, and we came away from this test learning a lot.

"A couple of the other teams were focusing on low-fuel qualy runs and getting to the top of the timesheets had slightly different goals to what we had. From our point of view, we took everything away we needed to and had a productive test."