Halo F1 device saved Grosjean's life in Bahrain - Brawn
Formula 1 boss Ross Brawn has credited the controversial Halo safety device for the role it played in saving Romain Grosjean's life after his heavy crash on the opening lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The start of the race was suspended after Grosjean speared off into the barriers at Turn 3 following contact with AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat.
Grosjean’s car burst into flames on impact and tore his Haas into two pieces.
He managed to get out of the wreckage but Haas confirmed shortly he had been taken to hospital with minor burns and a suspected rib fracture.
Speaking after the race, Brawn confirmed the FIA would need to investigate why the barrier failed and Grosjean’s car caught fire so quickly.
“We’ve got do a very deep analysis of all the event that occurred because there was a number of things that shouldn’t have happened,” Brawn said. “The fire was worrying, the split of the barrier was worrying. The positives were the safety of the car and that’s what got us through today.”
Brawn was adamant the Halo safety device - which was subject to a lot of criticism for its appearance when introduced at the start of 2018 - was responsible for saving Grosjean's life.
“Barriers splitting was a classic problem many years ago and normally resulted in a fatality, Brawn added. “And there’s absolutely no doubt the factor [the Halo] that saved the day and saved Romain and all team behind it deserve credit for forcing it through. If you recall there was quite a lot of controversy at the time introducing it and I don’t think anyone now can doubt the validity of the halo. Hats off to everyone involved because it was a lifesaver today.
“It was a high G load as well and we have to look at how everything failed because everything is designed to fail in a progression. A crash that catastrophic obviously things failed in an unpredicted way. Obviously, the car came apart and we had a fuel fire, which we have not had for a long time. The fuel cells are incredibly strong. I suspect that came from a ruptured connection.”
With another race in Bahrain taking place in a week, Brawn confirmed changes to the track may potentially be made following their analysis.
“It’s a barrier which is very unusual to hit in the way that Romain hit that barrier. For sure there will be some very careful scrutiny between now and the next race. Any information we can gather from now and the next race we can do so.
I am sure if any action needs to be taken it will be done. It’s something we’ve not seen for a very long time and I think the safety standards at the circuits are exceptional but today we saw something we didn’t predict.”
