Them suits must be made of some pretty good stuff. How he's survived that I'll never know. Edit: won't let me post the video from Instagram, but it's all over social media. His car has hit a crash barrier and burst into flames. The barrier has melted from the heat and there's videos of him essentially stood in the fire, climbing over the remains of the barrier. Thankfully he appears to be unhurt.
Same opinion as you, it is quite remarkable that he has walked away from that. I guess it shows how far the safety in F1 has improved over the years, even recent years with the addition of the halo.
Watching it live, as soon as it exploded, I assumed he was dead. My heart sank. The camera didn't show anything further for a while and I feared the worst. But - and I have no idea how - he got out and it was so good to see him alive and well. One of the most horrific crashes I've ever seen. Yes, lots of safety stuff is involved these days, but I can't put that crash and him surviving down to anything but luck. The 12-year-old me saw Senna die, and a few years ago, Bianchi. But that today was so hard to see.
He's very lucky to walk away from that. The barriers will be designed to deform but I'm not sure they could have predicted the survival cell piercing straight through it. By going through it might have reduced the forces on his body just enough. As it is it is reported that he has broken ribs. Imagine the internal organs all taking that impact. So very lucky.
I remember when it first came in and I thought “that looks ugly” but who cares how it looks if it saves lives. There’s been a few situations now where it has proved its worth.
Brilliant advances in safety first been made in F1 that has benefitted the modern day construction of family vehicles. I once got hit by a bread delivery lorry on the roundabout that gives access to the Sheffield Parkway. When my car ( Ford Focus) was recovered and taken to the Ford garage in Wakefield looking at it , my immediate thought was how did I get out of that. ? The body shop operative explained that the car was designed with a " crumple zone" which basically meant it had imploded on impact and in essence it looked a lot worse than it should. As a fan of Speedway I've been at meetings when unfortunately after colliding with the iron perimeter fence, I've seen three riders suffer fatal injuries. It's really pleasing that the introduction of air fences on each bend has now made a fatality a very rare occurrence thank goodness.
Senna crash was awful, as was the Lauda. The one that always affected me (ironically as a 12 yo) was Ronnie Petersen. Lotus were my team, he was my F1 fave. F1 took a long hard look at itself after that and thankfully safety has been at the forefront since. Glad all is OK, it seems, after todays events.
What is confusing me most about this accident and his survival is that if I've got this right then he stayed in nose cone of the car and went through the barrier because everything from the cockpit backwards stayed trackside but he jumped from the other side towards the track. How the hell is that possible? Doesn't it mean his upper body and seat were essentially unprotected and sticking out the back?
Not seen it, but one of my favourite drivers. Never had the best car, saw him win F2 at Silverstone GP 2011.
He's always been one of my favourite drivers. I think he's a really unreliable F1 driver who is so prone to mistakes it's unbelievable but he seems like such a passionate guy. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if that actually causes his mistakes because he tries so hard. When it was raining heavily in the recent gp there was team radio from Romain which wasn't shown on TV but he got clipped and spun and was coming back on to the track when he spun again in the wet. There's colourful language in the clip but the beginning is when he gets clipped and spun and the sh1.t is when he spins a second time. Very hard not to feel for the guy. You can just tell how much he cares
Glad I didn't see it live, lucky boy. I'm a bike racing fan, and was unlucky enough to see Simoncelli die live on TV. Remember Senna's death growing up but thankfully again didn't see it live. The Simoncelli incident haunted me for a good few seasons after. Used to travel to watch races around Europe and most fans felt the same.
Not exactly, there's a 'survival cell' which contains the seat and when you see the images that has stayed intact around him. It's astounding he's walked away from it. I felt sick watching it. When I saw the images of the car through the barrier I burst into tears. What a horrible thing. He was in the the car for about 18 seconds in the flames.
The air fences are a huge improvement, I've only recently got into Speedway (last 7 years) but even with the air fences now my heart sinks when I see an accident.
There's a pod that envelops the driver (the survival cell). It wraps around the back of the seat (the seat is in fact part of it) and includes the 'halo' beams above. That part went through the barriers. Even though the back half of the car had ripped off, the pod remained intact. There have been worries that drivers would not be able to escape from these pods due to the halo but that concern was not borne out in this case.
Just watched it back from the initial explosion to getting outside of the flames it was 25-26 seconds. Unreal!