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There's a topic I've kept on hold for quite some time, not because it's challenging to write and explain, but due to its literally shocking nature. I was one of the live witnesses to Romain Grosjean's accident, the Haas F1 driver, during the Bahrain GP race held on November 29. It was shocking not just for its severity, but the fact that in over 20 years of watching Formula 1, apart from incidents related to refueling in the pit lane, we rarely see an F1 car explode like that. It resembled the accidents of the 70s when F1 cars were literal bombs strapped behind the drivers, hurtling at 300 km/h.Videos from other sources have been blocked by Liberty Media for copyright reasons. The clip on the F1 YouTube channel doesn't seem to be embeddable, so if you're interested, please click on the clip to watch it. Thank you very much, everyone:Unlike the unfortunate drivers of the 60s and 70s, Romain Grosjean didn't suffer severe injuries. Even when trapped in the burning car for nearly 30 seconds due to the fireball caused by the exploding fuel, Grosjean only sustained burns on both hands. This was the result of attempting to reach down to the seat to undo the safety belts, allowing him to climb out of the car and escape the accident scene while the flames were still intense.Loss of Control and Steel Barriers on the Racetrack Edge
The madness on Sunday, November 29, began quite normally, like many other Formula 1 races before it. The entire sequence of events started with a very slight push between two racing cars. The most talented drivers on the planet fiercely chased each other, creating a densely packed racetrack with cars vying for positions ahead. Watching a lot of races, this scenario seems quite normal. The massive tires of the $20 million car controlled by Grosjean slide to the right. It's the moment when the ordinary skills of an F1 driver are tested, as they must accelerate, decelerate, and steer with split-second precision to overtake, escape congestion, and avoid opponents to prevent the car's outer layer from being damaged, affecting aerodynamics later on. However, what Grosjean didn't anticipate was that when sliding to the right, his car's rear wheel was thrown into the front wheel of car #26, driven by Daniil Kvyat. They collided, and that single collision led to the insane accident witnessed in the clip above.
According to FIA regulations, every racetrack must have safety barriers or run-off areas to safely reduce speed. But instead of barriers using rubber tires or water-filled barrels, the shock-absorbing structure where Grosjean collided was nothing more than the familiar steel guardrails seen on highways. In just half a second, that thin strip of steel was torn apart by the car. The guardrail did its job correctly, stopping the car at 220 km/h, but in an unintended way. The rear of the car, the heaviest part where the fuel tank, engine, and transmission are located, was thrown forward, causing the car to rotate almost 180 degrees.
This throw caused the million-dollar car to split in half, tearing apart even the Kevlar-lined rubber fuel tank, causing fuel to spill everywhere. Combined with the tremendous heat from the engine or the high temperature when the car rubbed against the shock absorber, it ignited.
The car exploded and burst into flames, creating an excess of heat enough to cremate a human body. But after that 220 km/h collision, after 10 to 15 seconds, Grosjean had to struggle to escape from the seatbelt system, frantically trying to get away from the fire to reach safety. People witnessed a scene both impressive and horrifying: the 34-year-old French driver leaping out of the engulfing fire, stumbling towards the hands of Alan van der Merwe, the driver of the emergency rescue vehicle in the race. Despite suffering minor burns on his hands, legs, and ankles, Grosjean stood tall amidst the admiration of everyone, whether they were his fans or not. And just one week later, he returned to the track to express gratitude to those who saved him, even though he couldn't yet return to the driver's seat of an F1 car:
Miracle or Science?
Blame not the global automotive and speed sports media outlets. It would be a shame if their headlines did not include the term 'miracle.' Racing fans worldwide collectively celebrated this event as a perfect combination of luck and blessing. But for the silent figures working in the industry, the engineers, chemists, and trauma specialists, Grosjean's survival is a result of science, 100%.
However, that is not all the scientific achievements that prevented Grosjean from suffering more than just a few minor burns on his hands and legs. Another achievement is the head and neck protection system, affixed to the driver's helmet, the safety harness system, and most importantly, the protective suit he wears in every race.
We watch too many Hollywood movies and think that heroes walking away from an explosion is normal. But in real life, that is indeed a miracle. And for this to happen to Grosjean, a hundred years of automotive scientific research has been applied.HANS – Head and Neck Support
In 2001, Dale Earnhardt Sr. was racing at speeds exceeding 240 km/h in the NASCAR Daytona 500 when his car collided with the barrier. In just 0.08 seconds, the car decelerated from 240 km/h to 70 km/h. The acceleration at that moment was 25G, meaning the impact of that collision on Earnhardt's body was akin to the force experienced by a fighter pilot during a rapid deceleration from supersonic speed to zero in just 1.5 seconds. Earnhardt's body was held in place by the safety harness, but unfortunately, his head was not. At such extreme acceleration, Earnhardt's neck couldn't withstand the shock. Although he wore a helmet, in this case, it only made his head heavier. When it pitched forward, the neck and spine couldn't endure the excessive impact. As a result, the skull fractured. Unexpectedly without the skeletal support and protection, the brain, neck muscles, spine, and blood vessels suffered fatal shocks. Earnhardt did not survive.
The emotionally intense accident of the American driver marked the moment when everyone agreed on the necessity of a protective system for both the head and neck of racers in case of unfortunate accidents. The described injury is called a basilar skull fracture. Surprisingly, in the previous century, this type of injury occurred terrifyingly frequently in the racing world. Since drivers needed to look to both sides while driving and rely on rearview mirrors during competitions, the safety systems focused only on keeping the racer's body safe inside the car, on the driver's seat, with little consideration for the head and neck, except for the helmet.
This scenario persisted until Dr. Robert Hubbard made a difference in the 1980s. He was an engineer and a traffic accident research expert. Hubbard sometimes served as a pit crew member for a racer on weekends. One day in 1981, Hubbard witnessed a tragic accident where the head and neck area of the driver wasn't adequately protected, and his friend, racer Patrick Jacquemart, lost his life. Hubbard and his brother-in-law began working on a solution.
The world of racing is a peculiar environment. Sometimes, it turns a blind eye to new safety standards. Drivers, who spend their days inhaling fumes, focused on speed as the top priority, sometimes considered safety devices as cumbersome nuisances. However, after Earnhardt's death, the entire industry had to face the truth, that courage and driving skills didn't necessarily translate to neck resilience for every racer.
So, the device named HANS is widely used in nearly all competitions. It resembles an artificial horse-collar, made of carbon fiber, worn around the racer's neck and secured with two straps to the helmet. This gear doesn't anchor the racer's head and neck to the driver's seat but instead secures the racer's head and neck to their own body. When an impact occurs, the head won't be thrown forward with excessive acceleration. Since HANS became mandatory, as of 2016, no accident has resulted in a racer's death due to a basilar skull fracture.
Post-analysis of the accident reveals that Grosjean experienced a force with a 67G acceleration, 67 times the gravitational acceleration of Earth. This means the head and neck of the French racer endured a shock two to three times higher than what Earnhardt had to endure. Yet, Grosjean stood firm, indicating that the HANS device undoubtedly played a significant role in saving him.5-Point Safety Harness System
Before addressing head and neck safety, let's talk about how to keep the body securely in the driver's seat. To have the safety harness system, we must thank a U.S. Air Force anatomist named John Paul Stapp. In the 1940s and 1950s, Stapp and his colleagues had a mission: to find the fastest deceleration speed the human body could endure. During World War II, fighter pilots were the most valuable assets of any military force, yet their mortality rate was extremely high. Engineers wanted to create a seat allowing pilots to eject from a falling aircraft. Planes could be replaced, but training a skilled pilot was not always feasible. The problem was, abruptly leaving a high-speed moving aircraft could subject the human body to unbearable forces. One member of the research team was the late legend Chuck Yeager, and Stapp witnessed the engineers' efforts to break the sound barrier, attempting to create powerful thrust aircraft to achieve that. However, in the process, many skilled American pilots sacrificed their lives in the quest for answers regarding safety. Stapp, at that time, decided to find safety answers by experimenting on himself. As a result, Stapp and his colleagues discovered that the human body could even endure the impact of an aircraft accident, as long as the entire width of the pelvic bone was kept fixed, and a safety harness passed over the shoulders of the test subject.
The 5-point safety harness system, with two straps over the shoulders, two straps across the pelvic bones, and one fixed strap between the legs, was invented. It has been the gold standard ever since. Subsequently, 6 and 7-point safety harness systems were developed, primarily to avoid discomfort in the groin area, but they all focused on protecting the shoulders and pelvic bones. This system, equipped in the Formula 1 car driver's seat, combined with the HANS system, prevented Grosjean from being thrown forward with tremendous force, avoiding severe life-threatening injuries.
You might not know, but according to statistics, if the person sitting in the back of a car doesn't wear a seatbelt, the person in the front, even if belted, is 2.4 times more likely to suffer injuries. The reason is that if the person in the back doesn't wear a seatbelt, they could be thrown forward, right into the head and neck area of the front-seat occupant, and with the body's weight, injuries to the front-seat occupant are inevitable.Fire-Resistant Racing Suit
Arguably, the fire-resistant suit that allowed Grosjean to sit in the massive fireball for nearly 30 seconds and still escape is the most crucial lifesaving gear after the mentioned systems saved Grosjean from deadly impacts. To have this suit, we must thank the chemist Wilfred Sweeny from DuPont. In 1961, while working at DuPont's headquarters in Delaware, Sweeny created a chain of organic fibers, and later he discovered that when twisted, it resisted fire. DuPont quickly turned those organic fibers into fabric, then woven into a fabric named Nomex.
What makes Nomex stand out from other fabrics is that it not only burns slowly and requires a high temperature, but when removed from the ignition source, Nomex stops burning immediately, unlike cotton or other fabric materials. This property is what helped Grosjean step out of the burning cockpit almost without severe burns. According to DuPont expert Paul Schiffelbein, aside from Nomex, all other fabric materials under such accident conditions would ignite within just 3 seconds, from cotton to polyester.
In 1969, 8 years after Nomex was invented, legendary racer Mario Andretti miraculously survived a crash at the Indy 500, solely thanks to the Nomex fibers in his racing suit. Since then, Nomex, like today's carbon fiber, has become the gold standard for racer safety.
Not limited to fabric materials, Grosjean's suit, produced by AlpineStars, has also been a decade-long research outcome. According to FIA regulations, the racing protective suit must be durable enough to stick to it and pull the driver out of the accident scene. Some suits even have advanced features, such as airbags sewn in a pellet shape that inflate during a fire, creating a protective barrier for the skin and body, significantly delaying the occurrence of burns.
