FIREBALL crash brings back grim memories for Grand Prix veterans, writes PETER COSTER:
TWO incidents in the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday shared a sudden and visceral impact from the past.
Romain Grosjean’s escape from what would have been certain death was a grim reminder of the fireball that surrounded Niki Lauda when he crashed in the German Grand Prix in 1976.
Other drivers stopped and pulled Lauda from his burning Ferrari, but not before he inhaled toxic fumes that eventually caused his death last year after a lung transplant.
Grosjean somehow escaped the fumes, which Dr Ian Roberts in the following medical car said did not invade his helmet as he pulled the French Haas driver from the fireball.
The second incident came at the end off the race when a fire marshal carrying an extinguisher ran across the track to put out the blaze engulfing Racing Point driver Sergio Perez’s car after an engine blow-up.
“I panicked because it was the last thing I was expecting,” said McLaren driver Lando Norris who was first to see him.
“The guy didn’t look before he crossed the road. The guy had some balls on him.”
Embed from Getty ImagesIt reminded some with long memories of the incident when rising Welsh star Tom Pryce was killed after running into a marshal running across the track with a fire extinguisher during practice for the South African Grand Prix in 1977.
The marshal died from the impact and Pryce was killed by the fire extinguisher hitting his head.
It was the year after Lauda was trapped in his burning Ferrari in the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.
There were other incidents that tumbled into mind when Grosjean leapt from the fire that engulfed him on Sunday.
Ferrari driver Gerhard Burger was surrounded by flames when he crashed headlong into the armco at the Italian Grand Prix at Imola in 1989.
Like many that day, this correspondent felt the shock of what looked like a fatality.
The fire marshals saved the Austrian driver from the fire that erupted when the side-mounted fuel tanks exploded. Now the fuel is in flexible bladders behind the driver although in the Grosjean crash there must have been a rupture when the car was torn in half.
Over the years, the emphasis on driver safety in Formula One has saved the lives of many drivers and while fire marshals need to be reminded of the chaos they can cause when their balls, as described by Lando Norris on Sunday, take over from their brain, the Grosjean crash ends the debate over the halo.
Some drivers opposed the introduction of the enclosing titanium frame on previously open cars.
There are still concerns about the ability of drivers to escape through the frame, which has been described as the shape of a chicken wishbone, with a vertical strut in from of the driver that was thought would obstruct a driver’s view.
That did not prove to be an issue. But in spite of Grosjean’s escape it is obvious that drivers cannot leap from the cockpit as quickly as they might have before the halo was introduced at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne in 2018.
In a test that year, Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas took nearly 10 seconds to get out of the car. The mandatory maximum time was seven seconds, but the advantages of the halo were considered to outweigh the disadvantages.
At Bahrain on Sunday, Grosjean did not get out of the cockpit for what seemed an interminable 18 seconds.
He emerged from the flames seemingly unscathed, with Roberts assisting him over the Armco barrier, minus one of his boots.
He would have been killed but for the halo. The Haas speared into the armco, splitting the horizontal sections and finishing on the other side.
The rear half of the Haas was left sitting on the circuit side. The impact when Grosjean hit the barrier after suddenly turning in front of Alpha Tauri’s Dannil Kyvat was judged at an incredible 50g.
F1 drivers are usually subject to g-forces of 2.5g under acceleration and four or more on some corners.
It is possible that Grosjean was only partially conscious after the impact. The so-called carbon-fibre “survival cell” stopped his feet and legs from being crushed and his only injuries appeared to be minor burns to the backs of his hands and ankles and bruised ribs.
Grosjean, who is president of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, said from his hospital bed that he no longer has any reservations about the halo.
Every safety feature in the car and the fire-resistant clothing he was wearing saved him, in spite of the heat being so intense his helmet visor had become opaque and was melting.
Had the 34-year-old veteran of 179 Grand Prix with 10 podium finishes not been at the peak of physical fitness, it is unlikely he would have survived.
Blinded by the flames he not only climbed through the halo after detaching himself from his six-point harness and the steering yoke, he then climbed back into the arms of Roberts and South African medical car driver Alan van der Merwe. The medical-car weighs about two tonnes with its rescue equipment and could not hope to keep pace with the cars streaming through the first corner.
F1 cars develop 1000 horsepower and were reaching speeds of 250km/h when Grosjean swung right to avoid debris from other cars as they started colliding in the opening lap chaos.
The armco may also have contributed to the crash. It was angled towards the track in front of a service road. Had it been running parallel it might have allowed the Haas to slide along the barrier.
The list of drivers killed in F1 crashes is long and includes some of its greatest drivers. Ayrton Senna was a triple world champion when he was killed because of a steering failure while leading the Italian Grand Prix at San Marino in 1994.
His friend, Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger had been killed in qualifying the previous day.
The driver themselves had long demanded safety improvements under the leadership of triple world champion Jackie Stewart.
The Scot retired following the death of teammate Francois Cevert in the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen in 1973.
His efforts to improve driver safety and medical facilities at the world’s Grand Prix circuits began in 1966 after his own horrific crash in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa.
Stewart crashed into a telephone pole and came to rest in a farmer’s shed with his car’s steering column pinning one of his legs.
His ruptured fuel tanks leaked into the cockpit and he was eventually pulled from the wreck by drivers Graham Hill and Bob Bondurant, who also crashed.
Stewart, who was to become president of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, was put in the back of a truck before being taken to a first-aid station, where he was put on a stretcher while waiting for an ambulance to take him to hospital.
Much has changed since drivers were once flung from their cars to die on the track because they did not wear seat belts.
The halo has clearly saved two lives. Grosjean has waved at us with his bandaged hands from hospital.
Charles Leclerc, who won the Belgian and Italian Grand Prix last year, would have been killed when Fernando Alonso’s McLaren skidded across the top of the halo on his Sauber in the Belgian Grand Prix the previous year.
Had Leclerc’s great friend Jules Bianchi been protected by the halo he would have survived a crash into a mobile crane parked beside the circuit at the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka in 2014 when his helmet was pierced by part of the crane.
Tests have since shown the halo can withstand the weight of a London double-decker bus.
Incidentally, the Bahrain Grand Prix was won by Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes.
Hamilton has already secured his seventh world drivers’ championship and no one seems dismayed that he will not contest the next Grand Prix, again at Bahrain, after testing positive to Covid-19.
He may just be out of isolation in time to win the remaining race the following Sunday at nearby Abu Dhabi.
PETER COSTER is a former editor and foreign correspondent who has covered a range of international sports, including world championship fights and the Olympic Games.
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