Anatomy of an accident
On the opening lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix in November, Romain Grosjean’s Haas smashed through the crash barrier, split in two and burst into flames. The Frenchman walked away, minus a shoe, with burns to his hands. Miraculously, apart from shock, he was otherwise unaffected.
Grosjean’s survival was a tribute to the constant search for improved driver protection even though the accident itself underlined the stark truism that motor racing can never be completely safe. Yet, it did not prevent a thorough investigation into scenes that would not have been out of place in a disaster movie. Indeed, had this been a film’s storyline, the driver’s survival would have been dismissed as pure fantasy.
