This is beyond stunning. This is the worst single F1 crash we have ever seen anyone survive and when you listen to the sport’s veterans and survivors from the deadliest days, they all agree. On the third turn of the Bahrain Grand Prix driver Romain Grosjean got into trouble and shot across the course, his car striking some double row steel guardrail (more on that ins a second) with half the car staying on the outside of the wall and the other half, on fire, sitting outside the course. At first blush this was not something that someone could have survived. And then, like straight out of the movies Grosjean literally walked out of the flames and climbed over what was left of the guardrail into the arms of safety stewards.
While not completely without injury, burns to his hands are as bad as it got for Grosjean who’s life was 100% for sure saved by the (no longer) controversial “Halo” that exists to protect the heads of F1 racers from things like flying debris. Never in a million years was it constructed to survive what it does here, but not only did it survive, it saved the man’s life.
It seems unfathomable that F1 would allow any of their courses to have steel guardrails anymore. The number of drivers decapitated by steel guardrail over the years is as shocking as it is disgusting and Grosjean would have joined their ranks had it not been for the halo.
The immediate safety response of one guy handling a dinky fire extinguisher is also kind of a shocker but the fact that this car could actually hit a steel double guardrail in 2020 is mind-boggling.
This is just jaw dropping stuff all around.
Hit the image below to see Romain Grosjean walk out of hell –
Definitely the worst crashes of those that lived. ReMember those that dIdnt.
It makes me crazy to hear the newscasters talking about this as a “miracle”. No, it’s just the end result of decades of trial and error and some excellent engineering solutions. Racing safety is no accident – even when there’s an accident.
Dan
That was a freak accident, the safety barrier failed which is why he’s lucky to be alive, let alone not seriously injured. The decades of engineering didn’t keep him from plowing through that wall and becoming engulfed in a fireball for half a minute.
Those steel guard rails need to be banned from motorsports world wide, they are DANGEROUS!
It’s painfully obvious that the folks in Bahrain are more interested in “The Show” of their racing facilities and definitely NOT in the safety aspect of any of them.
This further shows why racing shouldn’t be fostered in countries with such human rights issues, ties to supporting terrorism and the like. I mean, c’mon folks in F1, MotoGP, etc. where exactly do you draw the line at how much greed you have??
Countries with human rights issues? Are you writing that from within the USA?? You guys arguably have some of the biggest (or at least most publicised) human rights on the planet at the moment.. BLM and an asshole for a President who supports his Proud Boy Klan?
We all have equal rights and freedoms here, which includes being an asshole or protesting. We don’t refuse people the right to vote or drive due to gender, or stone/ behead people for sexual preference.
Glad to see this driver survive. Back in the day when we would lose several drivers a year to fatal crashes, he would not have been so fortunate. In the explosion, you really cannot see if the halo was the defining factor in his survival, but certainly should have helped. I don’t get the comment about the “dinky fire extinguisher” though, this track is over 2 miles long, not a 1/4 mile drag track. The guy with the extinguisher was on the driver quick, before he could even get to the barrier. Whether that guardrail should have been there or should have had more protective covering, that’s another story.
If he gets knocked out he would have been in big trouble. He basically saved himself.
Thought he was done and then he jumps from the flames? CRAZY!!!