Components One driver Romain Grosjean relived Sunday’s horrific Bahrain Grand Prix crash, the place his Haas automobile penetrated a steel barrier and cut up in two, in a video information convention on Friday. This, in his personal phrases, is how he escaped the fireball.
“For me it wasn’t fairly 28 seconds, it felt extra like a minute 30. When the automobile got here to a cease I opened my eyes. I undid my seatbelt immediately. The factor I didn’t keep in mind on the following day was what did I do with the steering wheel? As a result of I don’t have the reminiscence of taking the steering wheel off they usually stated no, the steering wheel was gone between your legs. The column and the whole lot broke and went down.
“I really feel like one thing is touching my head so I sit again down within the automobile and my first thought was ‘I’m going to attend, I’m the wrong way up in opposition to the wall so I’m going to attend till somebody comes and helps me’. I wasn’t in stress and clearly not conscious on the time there may be fireplace.
“Then I look proper and left and watching on the left I see fireplace. So I feel ‘I don’t actually have the time to attend right here’. So subsequent factor is I attempted to go up a bit extra on the appropriate, it doesn’t work. Go once more on the left, it doesn’t work, sit again down after which I thought of Niki Lauda (who suffered extreme burns in a 1976 crash), his accident.
“I assumed it couldn’t finish like this. It couldn’t be my final race, couldn’t end like this. No means. So I strive once more and I’m caught. So I am going again after which there’s the much less nice second the place my physique begins to loosen up. I’m in peace with myself and I’m going to die. I ask my query: ‘is it going to burn my shoe or my foot or my hand, is it going to be painful, the place is it going to begin?’. I assume it was milliseconds on the time.
“After which I take into consideration my youngsters. I say ‘No, they can’t lose their dad right this moment.’ So I don’t know why however I resolve to show my helmet on the left hand aspect and to go up and attempt to twist my shoulder. That kind of works however then I realise my foot is caught within the automobile. So I sit again down, pull as onerous as I can on my left leg, the shoe stayed the place my foot was however my foot comes out of the shoe. After which I do it once more and my shoulders are going by means of (the halo) and I do know I’m going to leap out.
“I’ve bought each arms on the fireplace at the moment. My gloves are pink usually so I see particularly the left one altering color and beginning melting and going full black. I really feel the ache that my arms are within the fireplace but additionally the aid that I’m out of the automobile. Then I leap out and go on the barrier and I really feel Ian (Roberts, FIA physician) pulling at my overalls so I do know I’m not alone any extra and there may be somebody with me.”
After the extraction and fast checks within the medical automobile, Grosjean walked to an ambulance. He insisted on that: “It was key that there was some footage of me strolling in the direction of the ambulance. Despite the fact that I’d walked out of the fireplace, I wanted to ship one other sturdy message that I used to be OK.”
