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Never seen that before. Well, not for many many years. Replay shows just how lucky he was. That could have been a fatal accident easily. Lucky boy and thank god he’s ok
Thank **** for that, I though someone was a goner when I saw that fireball, surprised to see him in the medical car looking relatively unscathed, the safety gear does work, .
Oh my god! That's incredible
love the "iron man" bit!
Fk me! Cars been ripped in half, just behind the cockpit, at the fuel tank hence the fire
OMG torn in half, very lucky boy!
How did he and the marshals survive that, the front of the car is inbedded in the barrier!
I can’t believe he’s still alive!! Car ripped in half
That footage was incredible. Amazing that he looks relatively unscathed. Looks like the halo worked!
Unbelievable. Amazed he’s hobbled away from that. Absolutely gobsmacked.
The replay... the car literally cut in half by the barrier and Grosjean climbed out the front end buried under the barrier.
Very lucky we haven’t seen a worse outcome, thank god.
How on earth did he survive that?! His survival cell is buried in the barrier. Utterly insane. Really just insane...
Surely there should be tyres instead of a metal barrier on that section. Fairly badly designed!
How the heck did he get out of that car?!
The more I see of that, the worse it gets.
As sky commentary have just said, talk of salary caps for drivers may well stall a little now...
He might not have got out if tyres were there and on fire as well.
@jodafett-it depends on the location of the barrier. If they don’t expect a car to be able to hit it at any particular speed they are left without tyres.
The car was torn in half at his head rest. That safety cell has well earn’t its money, unbelievable. Amazing to see the medical car staff first on scene.
Amazing to see the medical car staff first on scene.
They did a phenomenal job running into that.
Feel sick after seeing that. No idea how he survived it. Not seen anything like it in decades. He is so so lucky to walk away from that.
That footage of him getting out, so shocking. What a lucky guy. That genuinely is a miracle escape
The more I see of that, the worse it gets.
Watching the across-track replays now of Grojsean climbing out of the flames/barrier is actually quite upsetting. Feel a bit shaken tbh.
Just seen the full replay from a couple of angles of him getting out/waiting for the medical car. It’s terrifying, even knowing he’s OK.
fantastic by the medical team following
Feel a bit shaken tbh.
+1
I don't think I'd want to carry on if I were one of the other drivers
Wouldn't be surprised if the race is cancelled, seems the barrier didn't work as it should, so where else could this happen?
The analysis, so quickly afterwards, is really incredible - spotting debris flying at that speed and working through all the responses.
That's a lot of bits of car to collect...
I think the decision to introduce halo probably got somewhat vindicated there.
Horrible to watch.
I think the decision to introduce halo probably got somewhat vindicated there.
Doesn’t bear thinking about without it there...
that looks like wwii fighter dug up after 70 years
I suppose the point is that the car helps dissipate the energy of a high-speed crash by being able to disintegrate around the central driver protection.
Saying HaaS might need a reserve driver for next week! No one would blame Roman Grosjean if he took the rest of the season off tbh.
it's hard to believe that in the past they kept on racing while their fellow competitors were being incinerated.
As mentioned on Sky, if Romain hadn’t got himself out of that I don’t think anyone could have got in there to help.
Doesn’t bear thinking about.
I’m not easily shaken but watching that live was shocking.
That survival cell earned its money today. Absolute horror crash. I felt sick when I saw it live, it was like a bomb going off.
So glad to hear he is ok - rest up Grosjean, that was a big one.
Commentary reckon 18-20s from impact to egress. He’s done extremely well to get out so quick in what was basically a furnace after a massive impact.
So you’re one of the other drivers asked to take the restart. Do you feel safer or less safe having just witnessed that?
I guess the actual answer is that they probably manage not to think about it at all.
@bluearsedfly. Likewise. I guess as a regular watcher, much like the drivers, you know a bad one when you see it.
Visible chunk out the Halo when they were lifting it onto the truck!
is it the battery discharging that ignites the fuel ?
Seems to be some disagreement on the fire. Some saying the fuel collector (2 litres) and others saying full fuel tank has been punctured. Certainly looks like the latter to me!
Incredible how strong those cells are - I bet the deacceleration numbers are massive, from pretty quick to a dead stop in inches. So, so glad he could get himself out.
is it the battery discharging that ignites the fuel ?
Very much doubt it. More likely a spark from the metal barrier/carnage
@dannybgoode Like you said having watched as much motorsport as I have over the years it obviously looked a massive one, as soon as it happened I was off the couch screaming at the tv. I honestly feared the worst.
Watching back some of the reactions in the pit lane plenty of other people thought the same.
I can’t fathom how horrific the environment must have been in the car while he was trying to get out. Bearing in mind he’ll have been winded to **** having had the stuffing knocked out of him, then getting the wheel off, head rest and then clamber out of the wreckage. Horrific
It was extremely lucky that he was able to get out when he did, with him not being knocked out and the way out the cockpit wasn’t blocked. Thought the worst. Brave Marshall’s and medical staff too.
He’s a really nice guy too. Glad he’s ok. Probably not how he wanted to see out his f1 career but he’s relatively unscathed.
Martin Brundle, to paraphrase "we're a bunch of sociopaths hey ho"
This is unreal
And now Stroll upside down!
Deary me. Car upside down now! Need to call it a day on this race
Unless it turns out to be a mechanical, it does though look like he was the victim of his own driving, if anyone else had hit the barrier because of that swerve across the track he would be in trouble.
Medical car staff earning their wage today!
If I were Kvyat, I might retire from this one...
At this rate the race will be finishing at about 8pm!
Grosjean named driver of the day. One of the R5 commentators said "driver of the day? He drove 3 corners and caused a collision" 😂
Wtaf!!
The car literally broke clean in 2 and the car exploded!! Anyone watching that live must have immediately assumed that's a fatality.
I can't comprehend how someone had survived that, let alone walked away from it relatively unscathed..
WTF was that Marshall doing running across a live racetrack to the stricken racing point?!
Lewis bossed it.
Merc engine blow up could just have saved Albons F1 career
If you watch the video of the medical car arriving and getting Grosjean out, there's 16 or 17 seconds from the car stopping to Grosjean appearing. How on earth he's not dead is a mystery. How can he not have serious lung damage?!
Grosjean named driver of the day. One of the R5 commentators said “driver of the day? He drove 3 corners and caused a collision” 😂
The commentators on Sky F1 suggested that DotD should be Alan van der Merwe, the driver of the Medical Car.
Merc engine blow up could just have saved Albons F1 career
I'd imagine an outfit as successful as Red Bull will look at the bigger picture than a gifted podium. They'll be well aware of how far down the road he was to Max again.
Just an amazing thing that he can speak to us after that. Bonkers.
Obviously great news that he survived and the halo played a big part in that but barrier should never have failed in the way it did. Pure chance he wasn't knocked out or trapped in the barriers, would have been a fatal accident if so - Google Helmuth Koenig crash if you have strong stomach.
I'm not so sure the response time was that great given the safety car was following the field. Even with all the massive advances in safety over the years, there's a lot of pure chance in surviving the big one.
I'd been warned there was a big accident before watching the highlights but that was shocking. How the hell he got himself out is unfathomable, stopping that voliently must have knocked him out for a few seconds and that fire was not being put out quickly enough for him to survive in there long. The fire suits, helmets etc are designed to survive for 30 seconds, he was very close to breaching that.
I felt sick watching it even knowing that he survived.
That was chilling to watch—a fireball is always sickening, almost anything could have gone just slightly differently and turned that into an unsurvivable incident. Took me straight back to '89, seeing Berger's crash at Tamburello. And then the pictures of the wreckage just brough Francois Cevert to mind.
Just seen the full aerial replay on C4, too. Hideous.
I’m not so sure the response time was that great given the safety car was following the field.
1) it's the medical car
2) it's a Merc estate, it's not going to keep up with an F1 car capable of over 200mph
<20 seconds response time is good
I’m not so sure the response time was that great given the safety car was following the field.
I think it was remarkably quick.
I thought we had seen the last of fires like that a long time ago. I guess it's a big reminder not to get complacent.
I suspect one of the reforms will be to have the medical car staff to be in full fire suits/helmets. A lot of the old footage of firey crashes have the first people on scene able to help have been drivers, on account of no one else being equipped to take the heat.
Not sure how the medical car could get there any quicker, whilst carrying all the kit they need. It’s an E63 AMG, a 600+ hp monster, there’s nothing quicker, only an RS6 is even comparable.
Awful. No way should the barriers have failed like that. Must be an inquiry because clearly they had no vertical strength whatsoever. Thank goodness he was ok. And that fire marshal really was a hero.
The barriers narrowed the track at that point like a funnel, I think they'll need to rework it.
This view shows he was in the burning halo for some time glad he was in a condition to get out.
In the commentary they were saying that he must have hit between the posts of the TCB, but you can see in the gif that he hit next to/on one and tore it clean out the ground.
I can see the upshot being full fireproofs and possibly even BA for the medical car, or another vehicle the same as the medical car only with BA equipped fire fighters in it, so that in the event of that kind of accident they can have an unconscious driver out of the fire really quickly.
They'll likely also be checking the inspection schedule of the barrier, to make sure that it was inspected/tensioned/bonded as per specs, and if it was, looking at increasing the inspection/testing frequency to identify if there is an issue with the barriers where they can fail between inspections (they can, obviously, but does it happen consistently is the question). As well as investigating the design/fixing of the post to see if it could be secured better - as a general rule if the post doesn't pull out, then the barriers shouldn't split like that. All this could be totally wrong, as it's based on my knowledge of barriers on the motorways, which is over 15 years out of date now!
I like Roman, and I’m ever so glad he survived (as unharmed as he was is amazing) but he’s a terrible driver, surely that’s got to be the end of his F1 career surely?
I’ll not repeat what others have said other than it’s incredible that he not only survived but relatively unscathed.
I can see a few things coming out of this. Full fire suits with full visors for medical car personnel. Also more, professional firemen and women around the circuit. Only one with an extinguisher to hand and it was really only when they got the extinguisher from the car that it appeared to have an effect.
Still, a testament to the safety improvements in the last decade.
Only one with an extinguisher to hand and it was really only when they got the extinguisher from the car that it appeared to have an effect.
You don't like to be critical of anyone having to deal with such an absolute nightmare, but the overheads suggest that the first fire marshall appeared fairly ineffectual, starting their extinguisher some way from the car.
I do wonder, with the barrier split, how much harder the railing would need to be and what the consequences would have been if it had been sufficiently strong not to move.
Just had an awful thought. His wife would have been commenting on that live! That must have been horrible to witness with all the replays and lack of info immediately afterwards.
He hit the barrier with an impact of 53g according to the news.
That is one hell of a hit for a barrier to take.
just glad of the halo, otherwise I doubt he would have been taking in that video