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Most g force survived7/6/2023 ![]() ![]() Grosjean struck the wall at a reported 137 mph. This positioning created a nearly head-on collision, the first thing to go wrong. ![]() Instead, this particular wall juts outward, covering an access road made from existing runoff area. Grosjean's car would hit such a barrier at an angle and slide along its length, dissipating energy and shedding speed. All of this is relatively routine, and would traditionally be countered by a flat wall or guardrail positioned to slow an out-of-control car with a glancing blow. This starts with the collision itself, a simple result of on-track jockeying for position at the cramped center of a chaotic standing start that left a car careening off the line at a high-speed section of track. To understand what went right, we also need to understand what went wrong. We are all incredibly grateful that walked away from this incident #BahrainGP □□ #F1 /6ZztuxOLhw- Formula 1 November 29, 2020 Aside from burns on the backs of his hands, Grosjean escaped the horrific crash without major injury.Ī heart-stopping moment on Lap 1 in Bahrain He spent an overnight in a hospital in Bahrain, but preliminary scans show no broken bones. A safety team began putting out the fire, and Grosjean leaped over what remained of the barrier and walked to the waiting medical team. Seconds later, Grosjean emerged from the flames on his own. The fireball was enormous and explosive, engulfing only the cockpit area on the infield side of the barrier, the side Grosjean was sitting in. While most of Grosjean's fuel seemed not to ignite, the immediate and sustained fire implies that at least some fuel seeped out and caught flame. The cockpit hit the guardrail with such force, Grosjean and the remainder of the car went clear through to the other side.įormula 1 cars carry a full fuel load at the start of every race, a safety measure designed to eliminate in-race refueling that can lead to fires in the pit lane. ![]() The car bisected at the point where the driver's protective carbon fiber "tub" connects to the powertrain and rear bodywork. Rather than absorbing the impact, the wall halted Grosjean's car immediately. The nose of his car seemed to hit precisely at a seam in the three-layer guardrail, splitting the barrier open. Grosjean's trajectory just so happened to put him nearly perpendicular to the wall. Bahrain's Turn 3 exit, however, is a temporary guardrail, one that juts out into the paved off-track area meant to allow drivers to recover from exactly this sort of collision. On an ordinary Formula 1 track, Grosjean would have collided with a wall at a forgiving diagonal, spreading the impact out over the nose and sidepod of the car as it slid along the wall or guardrail. This is when his right-rear corner struck the right-front corner of Daniil Kvyat's AlphaTauri entry, forcing Grosjean off track at a high speed. Grosjean saw the opportunity to take another position, maybe even a few, heading into Turn 4, so he dove to the inside line and prepared to out-brake the cars that had exited Turn 3 with far less momentum. He was already making up positions heading into Turn 1, and light contact between a Ferrari and a McLaren on the exit of Turn 3 created even more opportunity. A poor start by second-placed Valtteri Bottas slowed the entire rest of the field, creating chaos and an opportunity for Grosjean to make up spots in a car that has struggled for outright pace for the past year. Romain Grosjean started Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix from 19th on the grid.
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