The Halo Strikes Again

If ever there was a moment that reflects the dangers of modern day F1, the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix certanley opened the eyes of the racing world to the risks that are still involved in racing today. If you haven't heard, on the opening lap of the race saw Romain Grosjean's Haas make contact with Danil Kvyat's Alpha Tauri and that sent Grosjean straight into a barrier at very high speeds. The car was ripped in half with the front of the car getting stuck in the barrier and was ignited into a huge ball of fire. Surprisingly, Grosjean escaped the wreckage after being stuck in the inferno for around twenty seconds.

I have been watching Formula 1 racing for many years now and have witnessed a fair amount of crashes both at home in front of the TV or live in a grandstand at a race. And usually when a crash occurs, it is usually just a small bash but we do see the odd major incident every now and then. Take the crash of Antonio Giovinazzi at spa during the 2019 Belgian Grand Prix. Yes it was a very big crash with a very heavy impact but at the back of our minds, or atlas at the back of my mind, we knew he was going to be ok. Grosjean's crash however, I genuinely feared the worst and I think almost everyone else did too. Its not often we see cars ignite in the way Grosjean's Haas did, and I think thats why we all got a bit shocked. With a heavy impact crash, once we know the driver is ok, they have time to get out and take all the necessary precautions but with fire. Well it really is a life or death situation. There isn't any time to think. All that mattered to Grosjean was getting out the car as fast as possible.

Lets not forget the incredible work that the track marshals and the medical team did to get Romain to safety as quick as they could. They go through so many scenarios, which I'm sure they never want to use during a race but when they needed to they where ready. The crash also showed how every safety measure worked, The Halo, the HANS device, the seatbelt but for some reason the chassis of the car was torn in two. I'm not going to get into wether or not thats supposed to happen because I honestly don't know but I've certainly never seen that happen before. And the car, as mentioned, ignited into a huge fire.And again, I don't know what caused it or ignite or what caused the fuel to leak. I believe the fuel tank is made of kevlar which is what is used in things like bullet proof vests so if the tank was punctured in any way, I'm sure the force going through it was through the roof. The force of the impact was recorded to be something like 53G which is an insane number to think about.

It is unclear if Grosjean will ever race in F1 again. It has been confirmed that Pietro Fittipaldi, grandson of two time world champion Emerson Fittipaldi, will race in the second Bahrain race but I would really like to see Grosjean bow out of F1 by racing in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the end of the year. We will see if he is ready to race by then and if he is up to it but I think for now, we are all just grateful that he is ok