Romain Grosjean's escape from seemingly certain death was as close to a miraculous vision...

[ASFN Admin]

It was a scene positively biblical in its power. Just 20 seconds after he had speared into a Bahraini crash barrier at 53 times the force of gravity, his car slicing in half and flames engulfing his cockpit, Romain Grosjean emerged from the inferno, hurdled the wall of shattered steel, and walked away. Formula One is not a realm given to invoking the divine, but the Frenchman’s escape from seemingly certain death was as close to a miraculous vision as any sport has seen. One half of Grosjean’s machine lay embedded in molten metal. The other half had come to rest a few yards away, a gruesome cleaving that bore witness to the horror of the impact. If ever there was a sight to shatter the misconception that modern F1 drivers know nothing of the terrors that assailed their forefathers, this was it. Grosjean’s ordeal rendered any suggestion of this sport being too safe, too anodyne, null and void. But for the halo that encircled his head as he hurtled towards doom at 137mph, he would, in all likelihood, have been killed on impact. But for his advanced flame-retardant overalls, he would have been consumed by the conflagration. As it was, Grosjean sustained only minor burns to his wrists and ankles, staying overnight at a nearby military hospital as doctors examined him for suspected broken ribs. His team, Haas, posted a video of him last night smiling in his bed, albeit with his hands encased in protective plastic. “I am OK – well, sort of OK,” he joked. “Thank you for all the messages.” The outcome was one that nobody observing either the crash or the ensuing fireball had any right to expect. The very fact that the 34-year-old would live to spend another day with his wife, Marion, and his three children, Sacha, Simon and Camille, stood as testament to the sport’s insistence never to compromise on safety. When the FIA, F1’s world governing body, resolved in 2017 to introduce the halo, a wishbone-shaped device to protect drivers from head injuries, it drew criticism for the aesthetics of the design. Too ugly, it was claimed, and too obstructive to vision. Now, not for the first time, it can be confidently credited with saving somebody’s life. “I wasn’t for the halo some years ago, but I think it’s the greatest thing we have built in Formula One,” Grosjean said. “Without it I wouldn’t be able to speak to you today.”

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