‘Hero’ racer Loek Hartog who saved Ollie Millroy speaks out on fireball crash

Loek Hartog, the driver who pulled Ollie Millroy from the burning wreckage of a car following a fireball crash, has shared his account of the incident. 

Dutchman Hartog abandoned his own car during a China GT Championship race in Shanghai to help British racing driver Millroy escape by first extinguishing the flames surrounding his destroyed Ferrari and then dragging him from the vehicle. 

Millroy said he owes his life to his rival and would remember Hartog’s “incredible act of bravery for the rest of my life”. 

Hartog, who has been branded a “hero” for his quick-thinking and selfless actions, has now spoken about his experience of the terrifying situation. 

“Mostly the images will speak for itself. I think everybody at least has seen it once at this point. It was very short, it was just one minute but it also shows how one minute can have such an impact on a community like ours,” Hartog told the Sky Sports F1 Show podcast. 

“And just very thankful for it getting the attention, and that's also first and foremost the reason why I'm here. I've been quite silent after the incident, because first and foremost, I respect Ollie's safety and Ollie's health and how he's doing.

“It's been a bit of a rollercoaster ever since. I would like to use the momentum it has to make sure something like this doesn't happen again. That's mostly the reason why I'm here. 

“I'm not really the kind of person that likes to come across or talk about these things as a heroic act, because for me, it feels like something that everybody should do, or at least after seeing this, is inspired to act in the same way.”

Hartog has remained in touch with Millroy via his wife and provided an update on the Briton’s wellbeing and recovery. 

“I'm really a lot in touch with his wife, and super, super happy for her to be the person that's on the other side of the line, because I feel extremely responsible, of course,” he said. 

“It's not clear from the images, but I think by now it's kind of publicly known that he was conscious whilst it happened, but he was unaware or disoriented. He lost his memory up to 1.5 hours after the accident. And I feel super responsible, because for sure, this has a long-lasting impact. 

“We can talk about this, but once he gets back behind the wheel, if he does at all... I mean, it's a dramatic event for him and especially hard to paint a picture, which he's not able to do by himself. And that's where I feel like I need to come in. 

"It's amazing how somebody you haven't known 72 hours ago... How connected you can feel. We really do now, and we feel like a team. It’s quite, quite special.” 

Hartog hopes lessons are learned from the accident to further improve motorsport safety standards and is determined to “make sure this does not get forgotten”. 

“I hope that this moment can be responsible for finding a solution of where somebody's unconscious or unable to get himself out of a car in case of a fire, we need to find a solution for that as a sport together,” he said. 

“Many things we have sorted, this we have not. Ollie and I are both professionals. We have been competing at events like Le Mans, we have been competing at events like 24 Hours Nürburgring. In these bigger events, you have more safety, more marshals, better facilities to react to situations like this. 

"But also as a sport, we exist because we have feeder series. We have series like F4, like Carrera Cup, like MX-5 Cup, series which prepare the next drivers. And if we have the same standards of safety as in F1, I mean, the access to the sport would also not be possible. 

"So I think we, as a community, need to gather and we need to find a solution for specifically this problem. And then we can get better from this.”

Hartog added: “It can’t be the responsibility of the drivers, that I agree with. But in this situation where every second counts, it was the way to be as soon as possible at the action, or at the point of where I needed to be. 

“I'm just glad I did in this case, and didn't rely on track marshaling. But of course, that's where we need to head as a sport.”