A racing car that goes out of its way. Which slides like a puck on an ice rink. Who will explode against the security barriers. And immediately flames. Appalling images during the Bahrain F1 GP, a few hundred meters after the start. It was the French driver Romain Grosjean, at the wheel of a Haas, who was the victim of this monstrous track excursion after a “touch” with another driver. The following images show his car literally cut in half, part of it passed under the security barriers. First reaction: the pilot could not get out. Yet from the flames emerges the long silhouette of the Frenchman who somehow manages to climb over the barriers with the help of the race marshals.
#BahrainGP????????
Romain Grosjean comes out of hell
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– CANAL + F1® (@ CanalplusF1) November 29, 2020
Once again, the safety constraints imposed on Formula 1 cars have proven their incredible efficiency: “Romain is OK. I don’t want to make a medical comment, but he only has minor burns to his hands and ankles. He is obviously upset … informed the boss of the Haas stable. I would like to thank the rescue teams who were very quick. The commissioners and the International Automobile Federation did a remarkable job, it was scary ”. Romain Grosjean was taken to the nearest hospital for further medical examinations. He is also said to be suffering from broken ribs.
The images of the accident go back years, to a time when F1 cars regularly caught fire when they were damaged, like those of Niki Lauda at the Nürburgring (Germany) in 1976 or Gerhard Berger in Imola (Italy ) in 1989.
After minutes that seemed like hours, television cameras show the 34-year-old driver pulling himself out of the “survival cell” (the reinforced cockpit) of his F1 on his own and shaking away from the blaze, aided by the driver of the GP medical car. One boot on his feet, limping, Grosjean left the track of the Sakhir circuit by ambulance, where he obtained two of his ten podiums in F1, in 2012 and 2013 in Renault-powered Lotuses. The Frenchman was playing his 179th GP and finishing what should be his last season in F1.
“I had never seen so many flames and an impact like this (53 g according to the International Automobile Federation, against 0.4 g at take-off from an airliner and between 0.5 and 3, 3 g from a roller coaster, editor’s note), comments Alan van der Merwe, who has been driving the medical car since 2009. All the systems that we have developed – the halo (the arch which overhangs the cockpit of F1 cars to protect the heads of the pilots, note), the safety barriers, the belts – worked as expected ”, he congratulates himself.
“We put our life on the line”
Immediately interrupted by a red flag, the GP did not resume until 6:35 p.m. local time (4:35 p.m. French), with British poleman Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) in the lead, beating the Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and the Mexican Sergio Pérez (Racing Point). ). In the meantime, Hamilton, crowned world champion for the 7th time this season, commented on the incident on Twitter. “I am so relieved that Romain is doing well, writes the Briton. The risks we take are real, for those who forget that we put our lives on the line for this sport and what we love to do. Grateful to the FIA for the enormous efforts made to ensure that Romain came out unscathed. ”
Second striking image of this race, at the second start, Kvyat found himself involved in a second accident: the Russian caught the Racing Point of the Canadian Lance Stroll and sent him to rest, wheels in the air, on his halo. The Canadian got out without damage with the help of the personnel of the medical car. The AlphaTauri pilot, for his part, receives a 10-second penalty.
(Photo AFP)
The last fatal accident in F1 was that of Frenchman Jules Bianchi, who collided with a crane during the Japanese Grand Prix in October 2014. French Formula 2 driver Anthoine Hubert lost his life in a crash with another single-seater in Belgian GP in 2019.
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