Flat Spot On: Grosjean's 28-Second Escape Took Years of Safety Work

In the aftermath of Romain Grosjean’s ability, thankfully, to get out of a car torn in half and engulfed by flames during the F1 race in Bahrain, here are ten insights from the long view of history, including some found in “CRASH! From Senna to Earnhardt — How the HANS Helped Save Racing.”

1. Grosjean, who climbed out of the flames 28 seconds after his Haas sliced through an Armco barrier, is one of thousands of lives saved by a commitment to safety by the FIA.

How so?

The safety cell that remained intact, despite an impact of more than 50G, was strengthened by an FIA mandate in 2001. OK, not so unusual. Well, under Max Mosley, the FIA was also actively introducing its European New Car Assessment Program for highway cars. After strengthening the rigidity of F1 cars by a factor of three and adding a new intrusion test, the FIA tied F1 to highway safety by using the sport’s engineering expertise to evaluate highway cars.

In the aftermath of criticism that Ayrton Senna’s death demonstrated F1 had no moral value, the FIA created the New Car Assessment Program. It forced car manufacturers to upgrade the structural integrity of their highway cars by giving every new car a grade of one star (dangerous) up to five stars (highest safety standard). While not legally binding, the public attention forced manufacturers, which had successfully lobbied the European Union against such changes on the basis of cost, to improve their cars. Renault was the first company to endorse the NCAP. To say it has saved thousands of lives and critical injuries in highway crashes is probably an understatement.

2. While the FIA has done an outstanding job on safety in the last two decades, there are some areas needing improvement. Had Grosjean been wearing a Nomex fire suit that met only the FIA’s standard for flame retardation, he might have perished. He escaped from his car in 28 seconds. The minimum standard for a fire suit at the FIA? Twelve seconds.

3. The FIA made massive changes to tracks in the aftermath of Senna's crash to reduce exposure to dangerous runoffs, hobbling some great tracks and corners. The sanctioning body clearly missed the mark in Bahrain with the location and angle of the exposed Armco barriers hit by Grosjean's Haas. As learned elsewhere, all barriers at racing circuits need to be covered by additional energy-absorbing materials.

4. The last driver to die due to a fire in an F1 car was Elio DeAngelis. He died in a testing accident at Paul Ricard on board a Brabham BT55 in 1986. A small fire erupted. Trapped in his car, the Italian eventually died of smoke inhalation. Where was the safety crew? There wasn’t one. A far cry from the FIA’s chase car with a doctor on board following the field at the start of the race in Bahrain, a standard procedure.

5. When Max Mosley sold the marketing rights for F1 to his longtime associate Bernie Ecclestone in 2001 for $360 million, it eventually led to the halo – which also was instrumental in saving Grosjean.

The money from the sale of marketing rights to Ecclestone was used to create the FIA Institute. The establishment of the Institute, whose first president was Dr. Sid Watkins, created the resources and commitment needed for new safety developments. Over a decade later, one of the Institute’s many initiatives became manifest in the form of the halo—following the fatal head injury to Julian Bianchi resulting from a crash at the Japanese Grand Prix in 2014.

6. Bianchi’s head injury claimed his life in the following year, 2015. If Grosjean had perished, he would have been the first to die in an F1 car on live television since Senna in 1994 at Imola. That produced enough outcry to launch the safety revolution leading to Sunday’s thankful and safe outcome. Among the many disapproving accusers after Senna’s death – L'Osservatore Romano, published by the Vatican.

7. Bernie Ecclestone, who owned the Brabham team when De Angelis was killed, was a strong safety advocate for F1, although he gets little credit. Ecclestone hired Dr. Sid Watkins as the first Medical Officer in 1978 and eventually paid for the construction of hospital-quality trauma units at each track visited by F1. Watkins was responsible for the chase vehicle that was first on the scene after Grosjean’s crash, driven by Alan van der Merwe with Dr. Ian Roberts on board. It is one of many significant improvements pioneered by Watkins.

8. Mercedes helped HANS Performance Products design a slimmed down version of the HANS after Mika Hakkinen was almost killed by a basal skull fracture in a crash at the Australian Grand Prix in 1995 — 18 months after Senna’s death. CART was also instrumental in the development of the HANS, mandating the new Model II device in 2001—two years before it became mandatory in F1. It was the use of the HANS by CART drivers, who each had a custom-made device, that enabled HANS Performance Products to produce a universal fit. Due to fit issues, F1 teams and drivers resisted using it for two seasons despite the FIA’s best efforts until the CART-developed universal device, created by Jerry Lambert at HPP, became available. Some teams, such as Renault and Sauber, succeeded in developing their own units that fit drivers properly.

9. General Motors offered to make a custom-built HANS Device available to Dale Earnhardt, which he declined, prior to the Daytona 500 in 2001, where he suffered a basal skull fracture on the last lap. Would a HANS have saved Earnhardt? Yes. Although unconfirmed by the sanctioning body in its official crash investigation, NASCAR’s own investigator privately acknowledged to his colleagues the HANS would have saved Earnhardt.

10. Both the halo and the HANS were met by resistance from F1 drivers—because they find it difficult to accept changes to their cockpits. In this respect, they are like most high-performing athletes who are wedded to routines they know work under conditions of great stress. These athletes need outside assistance when it comes to change. To call them out after the fact—including Earnhardt—for resistance to safety is a disservice to them and the sport.