Formula One climbs back on the horse this weekend at the same Bahrain circuit that demonstrated the dangers of going wheel to wheel in an automotive prototype at speeds topping 200mph.
So far no word from snooker hall warrior Ronnie O’Sullivan about how easy a caper it is providing you have the quickest car. Perhaps Ronnie is still chalking his cue.
The pictures of Romain Grosjean’s burned out Haas had a ghoulish quality that made his escape even more astonishing. That he would be detained in hospital for just 48 hours with only minor burns after sitting in a fireball for 30 seconds is so counter-intuitive as to blow the mind.
That he could move at all following an impact measuring 50G, his car splitting in two as he clobbered the barrier at twice the motorway speed limit, is testimony to the quality of safety in Formula One.
It’s not perfect. No money will be spared in the coming days and weeks as the sport investigates how a driver could still be so exposed during an impact, how the engine unit could shear from its mounting when designed to stay in situ, how the fuel cell could be compromised to such a devastating degree. Doubtless lessons will be learned, just as they were after the tragic accident at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix that cost Jules Bianchi his life.
Bianchi’s collision with a recovery vehicle at the scene of Adrian Sutil’s crash a lap earlier led to the introduction of the halo device that almost certainly saved Grosjean’s life. How ironic that Grosjean was one of many drivers, including seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton, who initially opposed its introduction. Bernie Ecclestone, the father of modern F1, argued that it was an affront to the integrity of open cockpit racing and was vehemently against it.
Without it, Grosjean’s head and torso would have taken the full force of the impact leaving us to speculate about the consequences of that. In a bygone age when there was no such thing as a survival cell, which remained intact allowing Grosjean to extricate himself, let alone a halo, first responders were left to manage death scenes. The example of Francois Cevert at Watkins Glen in 1973 comes to mind, his body halved as his Tyrrell sliced through the barriers during qualifying.
In the case of Grosjean, photographs suggest that his halo opened the metal barrier like a can opener as the chassis slid under the guardrails. That and the performance of the roll hoop, the essential safety architecture that extends above the driver’s head behind the seat, punching an inverted V-shape in the barrier during impact, protected Grosjean from the elemental forces that accounted for Cevert.
Grosjean was given notice last month that his services will not be required by Haas next season. Since he won’t be in the car this weekend, and must be a doubt for the final race of the season seven days hence in Abu Dhabi, it may be that the crash in Bahrain turns out to be his swansong. Not the lasting contribution to the sport he imagined but in its own way a statement of sorts.
On the day Watford’s Troy Deeney defended the right of footballers to police their own health in the case of head injuries following the collision between Raul Jimenez and David Luiz, Grosjean serves as an example that such decisions are best left with the experts. Had he, and the majority of his F1 rivals had their way, Grosjean would have advanced towards that barrier in Sakhir sans the device that saved him. A halo in more ways than one.
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from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3odwrL1
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