The 2018 Formula 1 season is just weeks away from starting and this week has seen various manufacturers release the first glimpse of the cars their drivers will be using throughout the year.Of course, with the mandatory introduction of the controversial halo safety device, even more eyes have been eager to see how the new feature affects the appearance.It will also be intriguing to follow just how much the hot topic of 2018 affects not only the performance of the car but the driver too.Well, Mercedes fans were given the opportunity to see exactly what Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas will see from their seat this season by posting a video on Twitter of the Finn taking the new car for a spin. Bottas was using a camera in his helmet to capture the experience and as you can see below the latest addition to the driver's cockpit certainly obstructs his view somewhat.It isn't just the vision at eye level which is affected as the overhanging section potentially threatens to prevent the drivers from seeing raised lights - a point also brought up by a few fans on Twitter.

After the brief run out Bottas said: "It was OK. No halo or halo, you can definitely spot the difference, but when you're running it all the time and it's fixed, it is what it is."

The modification has received plenty of criticism since its introduction was confirmed and it is set to be one of the season's biggest talking points.

Toto Wolff's opinion on the matter certainly hasn't changed anyway.

He added: "If you give me a chainsaw, I would take it off. We need to look after the drivers' safety but what we have implemented is aesthetically not appealing.

"We need to tackle that and come up with a solution that looks better. It's a massive weight on top of the car, you screw up the centre of gravity massively with that thing."

Expect the halo debate to rumble on for a while yet!