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Formula 1 bosses are considering renaming the halo cockpit protection device before its mandatory introduction for next year.

The structure, which has divided opinion between drivers as well as F1 fans, will make its race debut when the 2018 season kicks off in Australia in March.

But it is understood a name change for the halo will be put forward for discussion at the next F1 Strategy Group meeting on November 7.

A senior F1 source told Autosport: "We're supposed to be a gladiatorial sport, and then we give the device an angelic name.

"We have various options [for a new name], but it could be something like 'safety cage'."

The halo's detractors still have doubts about its effectiveness in various types of accident.

But the FIA said in a presentation this summer that its investigations had determined that the device would have protected Henry Surtees and Justin Wilson in the accidents that claimed their lives.

While its findings were less conclusive when simulating incidents such as Felipe Massa's Hungary 2009 collision with a loose spring, or Jules Bianchi's fatal crash in the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, the FIA said: "The number of scenarios in which the halo would have helped is overwhelming compared with the number of scenarios where it could have been neutral or negative".