There’s “no doubt” Romain Grosjean was saved by the Halo during his scary crash at the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Ross Brawn claims.
The Haas driver smashed into the barrier at high-speed having made contact with Daniil Kvyat shortly after veering right on the straight towards Turn 4.
Upon impact, Grosjean’s car would burst into flames with the survival cell, including the cockpit, becoming wedged in the barrier.
Once the fire was put out, it was clear the Halo, which was controversially introduced in 2018, had protected Romain in the crash, with the Frenchman able to climb out with just a few burns and suspected broken ribs.
“We need to do a deep analysis of what occurred,” said Brawn, F1’s managing director of motorsport.
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“The fire is worrying. The split barrier is worrying. Barriers splitting was a classic problem many years ago and normally resulted in a fatality.
“There’s no doubt the halo is the factor that saved the day…saved Romain. The team behind it need credit for forcing it through. I don’t think anyone can doubt the validity of the halo. It was a lifesaver today.”
What did worry Brawn, however, was the fire which erupted upon impact, as the car split in half as it is designed to do in such violent accidents.
“It was a high G load and we have to look at how things failed. The car came apart and we had a fuel fire, which we have not had for a
long time,” he noted.
“Those cars are carrying 100kgs of fuel and if that went up, it would have been a very big fire. There will be some careful scrutiny between now and the next race and action will be taken that needs to be done and it is something we have not seen in a long time and something we did not predict.”