FIM helmet standards to get stricter By Ben Purvis
Since 2019, MotoGP riders have had to wear helmets that meet the FIM's own strict FRHPhe-01 safety regulations and the same has applied to all FIM-organised road racing competitors since 2020. Now a second-generation set of rules have been set down to make race helmets even safer by 2026.
The new FRHPhe-02 standards (that stands for FIM Racing Homologation Programme for helmets - phase 2) have been published to allow manufacturers to prepare helmets in time for their introduction. For the first time, the regulations will apply to off-road competition as well as on-asphalt racing. While not required for road use, since helmet manufacturers will make their best, competition-oriented helmets comply, road-going riders who opt for those helmets will be able to benefit from the stricter testing.
The FRHPhe-02 tests will force helmets to withstand between nine and 13 random impacts at any of 22 locations around their shells, adding new tests such as impacts against oblique anvils and hemispherical anvils. There's also a requirement for quick-removable cheek pads to assist emergency workers and a new Skull Fracture Criterion (SFC) that limits linear acceleration over a specific time interval.
Compared to FRHPhe-01, the -02 tests will include four impacts against a flat anvil, picked from 17 possible impact sites, up from three impacts and 12 sites, at a speed of 8.2 m/s. Helmets will also have to withstand four hits against a hemispherical angle, again from 17 possible impact points, at 7.5 m/s. All this is on top of the requirements to meet UN ECE 22-06, Snell M 2015, 2020D or 2020R, or JIS 8133:2015 standards.
The helmets are due to be mandated in FIM competition by 2026, but there will be encouragement for competitors to adopt them sooner than that, once helmets meeting the standard are available.
Like the current FRHPhe-01 helmets, FRHPhe-02 compliance will be checked via QR codes sewn into the chinstraps of helmets that have passed the checks.
