Romain Grosjean had to withstand enormous pressure forces in his horror crash in the past Formula 1 season. That comes from a report by the FIA.
According to this, Grosjean was traveling at 241 kilometers per hour in his accident on the Bahrain international circuit on November 29th, which was triggered by Daniil Kvyat touching the AlphaTauris. When he hit the guardrails, Grosjean was still almost 200 kilometers per hour.
During his crash in Bahrain, centrifugal forces with 67g of pressure acted on Grosjeans body, i.e. 67 times his body weight. This is an extremely high value: Over a longer period of time, forces of five to six g can lead to unconsciousness in people.
According to the report of the World Automobile Federation, the hatch of Grosjean’s car on the left side of the chassis was detached, so that gasoline lines were torn off the safety bladder of the tank. This allowed gasoline to leak out of the tank and ignite.
“In the last moments of the impact in the track barrier, a fire has ignited, which started from the rear end of the survival cell and spread forward towards the driver,” said the report.
Grosjean crash: FIA praises safety precautions
However, the safety precautions in Formula 1 were praised. Features such as the helmet, HANS, seat, headrest, halo and the survival cell would have served their purpose and prevented worse, according to the FIA.
Grosjean had been in the burning wreck for 26 seconds after the crash, but was then able to free himself. In addition to burns on both hands, the Frenchman survived the accident almost uninjured. He was then replaced by Pietro Fittipaldi in the last two races of the season.
