The fact that only one of those photos is in color should be telling. So much crazy stuff has been tried in F1 that you could point to prior cars when talking about very many things. F1 has sorted itself out to be open wheel, open cockpit, and that's the image that defines the sport. I see a return to canopies and covered wheels as likely as a return to front engine cars or 4WD.
The most persuasive reason, at least for an argument against covered cockpits, is that it would be bad from a commercial standpoint. What F1 is ultimately sold on is the drivers and the heroics of the best racers in the world. If you cover them up you would absolutely lose that. Do you think most people would've realized the brilliance of what Senna did if they couldn't see him making the car dance?
Besides that, F1 is not and has never been about building the fastest car, period. It's about building the best car within the regulations, that everyone works from. That's why the sport is named for the formula from which they work. The regulations don't hold designers back, they're what makes the technical evolution of the sport interesting. Nobody doubts that a faster car would be the result of covering the wheels and cockpit, but that wouldn't be an F1 car.
There are some other options on viptv, I just sent the top link they had.
