4 years ago, the Romain Grosjean miracle in Bahrain

Fire. Everywhere. Seconds that are hours. How long has he been there, trapped in the flames? But where is he anyway? We can't see anything. We don't understand anything. The rear of the car is there, but where is the rest? Where is the cockpit? Where is Roman?

How long has he been in this blaze? We think of Lauda, ​​of Berger. We think the worst. It's not supposed to happen like this. Fire is from another era. It is a bygone, forgotten period, which we believed to be extinct. How long has he been in this hell? A commissioner armed with a fire extinguisher throws powder. A short man is Doctor Ian Roberts. He gives directions. He sees something. Yes, it's a helmet that appears. It's a man who stands up. It's Romain who now climbs over the slide. The doctor comes to his aid while another man, also wearing a helmet and blue, has grabbed another fire extinguisher and sprinkles their smoking overalls with white powder. It's Alan van der Merwe, the driver of the medical car who comes to help them. He throws the fire extinguisher to the ground to support the Frenchman who is missing a boot. No doubt he had difficulty getting out. But exactly how long did the apocalypse last? Twenty seconds? Thirty seconds? Regardless, he's alive. Romain Grosjean is alive. The two men put him in the back of the car while they gave him a quick examination. His face is both marked by one who has seen hell, and relieved by one who has returned from it. Now that he has regained his senses, his two rescuers take him to the ambulance where he is taken care of by medical staff and transported to the circuit hospital.

🗓️ November 29, 2020: the terrible accident of Romain Grosjean, miraculously caught in the flames in Bahrain 👏🔥 pic.twitter.com/k43XDIZ5L7

— CANAL+ F1® (@CanalplusF1) November 29, 2022

In the pit lane, where the cars are lined up, there is astonishment. We can see the disbelief on the faces of the pilots who watch the images of the departure and the crash in a loop. We see Lewis Hamilton take perfect flight in front Verstappen and Pérez, we also see the pilot Haas lose control of one's car at the back of the pack and shoot straight into the safety rail after contact with Daniil Kvyat. Above all, we see a ball of fire! Having become a crazy projectile launched at more than 220 km/h, the single-seater embedded itself in the barriers, tearing off the rear which remained on the right side of the track. Of the front part, nothing remains except the survival cell which perforated the rail. It is a miracle that he got out of it. Here again, the minutes are long. What exactly is wrong with him? "Romain suffers from burns to his hands and ankles, but otherwise he is fine," the American team finally communicates. "He is shaken, he has to undergo all the necessary medical examinations, but he is fine," specifies Günther Steiner, director of Haas F1. It is very scary. We saw what happened, we saw the state of the rail. He is lucky in his misfortune. The stewards and the FIA ​​people did a great job!”

28'' in hell

It was they who stopped their medical car at the foot of the race direction. "Romain was red with flames," explained Doctor Ian Roberts, who was bombarded with questions. "We could see that he was gradually extracting himself from the cockpit, but the question was how to reach him. A marshal was pushing back the flames with powder. There was only a very small window. As soon as he moved the extinguisher forward, the flames came back."

Alan van der Merwe arrives, apparently injured. “No,” he reassures, “I have something melted on me. The flames were quite intense, but I was well protected. In such conditions, you have to assess the risks very quickly. It would have been stupid to go into the flames, and it was the fire extinguisher that helped us. The priority was also to protect Doctor Roberts. There are so many things to decide in one or two seconds!” “When we got him back,” the doctor continues, “I told him to sit down. You could see that he was shaking a lot and that his visor was completely opaque, and in fact it had melted. I was able to take off his helmet to check that everything else was okay. He had pain in his foot and his hands, so I knew it was safe enough to move him into the medical car, just a little more protected, to put some gel on his burns and check that everything was OK with his airway, because in these types of accidents it's the flames and the smoke inhalation that can cause problems. But in fact, nothing went into his helmet despite being in the furnace for 28 seconds. Once all the initial checks were done, he was taken care of by the medical service and put in the ambulance. It's a team effort, it's not just the two of us. We have a local doctor in the car and firefighters, rescuers, etc. They all did their part. If they hadn't been there, we wouldn't have been able to do anything."

This is what remained of the Haas carcass… © Florent Gooden / DPPI

"Twenty-eight seconds," repeats Jean Alesi, who has come to see Doctor Roberts to get news. "It must have been interminable. Fire is a driver's worst enemy. Unclipping the harness is a reflex after an accident, but he must have had a bit of trouble getting out, because he lost a boot. Maybe he had a stuck foot? And then, he must have had no visibility. It's terrible. I've been hanging around the circuits for years, but I've never seen anything like it. The car literally disappeared into the rail. In 1989 at Imola, Gerhard Berger also caught fire, but we understood immediately what had happened. There, it was difficult to understand. We could see the back and nothing else. I'm still shaking from it. We couldn't see anything, and suddenly he appeared. I can't imagine what it must have been like for his family at home. It's a good thing Romain is an athlete, because not everyone can take 53 Gs and be able to get out on their own. Honestly, we have to thank the FIA ​​for all the work they do for safety. I'm obviously thinking of the Halo which probably saved his life, and the Hans (head restraint system. Editor's note) too...

A Halo that the Frenchman did not support when it was introduced. In 2017, during the Hungarian Grand Prix, he even told us that "it was a sad day for F1". It was something that he did not like and did not see the point of. "The Halo seems really effective in preventing us from being hit by a tire that would come off," he then developed, "but it also raises a lot of questions like the car extraction time which has been increased while a fire will always go at the same speed." He could not have imagined then that, three years later, he would be alive thanks to it.

Relief

On the track, the sport resumed its rights despite a new incident – ​​without consequences this time – on the restart lap. The Racing Point of Stroll turned around after a collision with theAlpha Tauri of Daniil Kvyat who still sees himself involved. While the Mercedes Lewis Hamilton's 11th win of the season, chairman Jean Todt heads to the circuit's medical centre to visit the Frenchman before he is airlifted to Bahrain's military hospital. "After consultation with doctors, we soon learn, Romain Grosjean will remain under observation in hospital tonight in order to be treated for burns sustained on the backs of both his hands. All X-rays carried out on Grosjean have revealed no fractures."

In the paddock, there was relief as Lewis Hamilton climbed onto the top step of the podium. And when he came down, it was to worry about the Haas driver’s health and to congratulate himself that he had nothing serious. “Terrifying, his car, the cockpit… I haven’t seen anything like that in a long, long time,” he said. “I’m really grateful that he’s safe and that he’s okay. It could have been a lot worse. I’m so grateful that the Halo worked, but it’s a reminder of how dangerous this sport can be – the speeds we go at, the energy we carry. The FIA ​​have done an incredible job, but we can’t stop there.” "The last sentence is not cryptic, because if the rescue was rapid, if the medical staff was heroic, if the commissioners played their role to perfection, if the Halo largely contributed to saving Romain's life, the way in which the slides opened and trapped the cockpit raises big questions.

"Obviously," he concedes Sebastian Vettel who is one of the directors of the Grand Prix Drivers Association, along with the Frenchman, the rails are not supposed to open like that. It's good that the cars are safer than before, but the rails should not break and the car should not catch fire like that. I don't know what happened there. I think it's difficult to say at this stage, but the main thing is obviously that Romain is okay."

Romain Grosjean emerged from this horrible accident with burns on his hands and feet, but alive © DPPI

Insecurity Rails

What happened will be up to the in-depth investigation that F1 technical and sporting director Ross Brawn wants to conduct. "Seeing a barrier split like this is clearly not what we want to see and an investigation will take place to understand. It is shocking for everyone in F1 to see an accident of this severity. We are not used to this, with fire also being involved. At the same time, the fact that Romain escaped without too much damage is a tribute to the work that the FIA ​​and the teams have done over the years. I think we remember the Halo controversy when it was introduced. And we must salute the determination of Jean Todt who did not give up. If we had not had the Halo, the situation would have been much more dramatic tonight!" "These modern barriers, is also surprised Toto wolff, should not split like this, so we have to analyse why this happened and how we can improve them. Also, the last accident with fire was in Imola 30 years ago (Gerhard Berger, in 89. Ed.), but huge progress has been made since then. The car should not have broken like this. The rear end should break with the engine, not the engine staying on the chassis. There is a lot to learn from this accident, a lot of safety to improve.

“The barrier did its job,” Hamilton said in a press conference, “but the idea that a driver could get stuck while his car is on fire, I can’t even imagine it. It’s something that, for me, belongs to the past… To the time of Niki (Lauda, ​​1976 German Grand Prix. Ed.), to that Benetton in the pits (Jos Verstappen, at the 1994 German Grand Prix. Ed.)! It’s something that I didn’t imagine seeing in our time and that definitely makes you think. I’d be lying if I said otherwise. Romain has a wife and children and has to think about all that. It’s a privilege to be able to do what we do, but there are lives around us, and so many other things. But as I said, we saw something extraordinary today.” There is still a lot to do in terms of safety, but this accident shows that a lot has already been done!”

Will this extraordinary accident, which would not have given him a chance a few years ago, push the Frenchman to review some of his plans for the future? After a shock like that, any normal person would pack their suitcase and go home. However, no driver is a normal person and that is what makes him so fascinating. It has only been a few hours since his terrible accident and here he is already sending a reassuring message to our entire community of motorsport fans. In a video where we see his hands bandaged because of the burns, he wants to be reassuring and displays a broad smile. "Hello everyone! I just wanted to say that I am fine... or almost fine," he explains, showing his hands. Thank you very much for all your messages. I was not for the Halo a few years ago, but I think it is a very good thing brought to F1 and without it, I would not be able to speak to you today. Thanks to all the medical staff at the circuit and the hospital, and I hope to be able to write you messages soon to tell you how you are doing. » And you know how happy we will be to read you!

This article comes from our issue 2289 dated December 2, 2020.

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