At the end of the 2020 Formula 1 season, the Haas Romain Grosjean driver suffered a terrible crash at the Bahrain International Circuit. His car got stuck between the sections of the Armco barrier, broke up and caught fire. It was one of the most violent shipwrecks we have seen in F1 in a long time, and the FIA, the governing body of F1, has finally released a full report of what happened – including what exactly went wrong.
THE The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) generally handles these investigations with care. Whenever a driver dies or is seriously injured – or whenever an accident is far more violent than most others we’ve seen recently – the FIA does an in-depth analysis of the cause and shares the report.
Here’s what the most recent report on the Grosjean incident had to say:
The car suffered major damage during the impact, including separating the powertrain assembly from the survival cell. The fuel tank inspection hatch on the left side of the chassis has been dislodged and the engine’s fuel supply connection has been pulled out of the fuel tank ‘security bag’; both providing primary pathways for fuel to escape from the tank.
The driver’s safety equipment, including helmet, HANS and seat belt, as well as the survival cell, seat, headrest and protection of the Halo front cockpit made to your specifications in the protection of the driver’s survival space and management the forces applied to the driver during the impact.
The high voltage Energy Recovery System (ERS) battery has been significantly damaged, with some parts of the ERS battery pack remaining with the power train and others connected to the survival cell.
The fire was lit during the final moments of the barrier’s impact, starting from the rear of the survival cell and advancing forwardards towards the driver as the fire grew.
So, basically, the FIA confirmed what seemed to be the case just by looking at the images of the accident: the car and all its security measures seemed to do their job. The main problem here was the fact that the fuel tank’s safety bladder was torn with the impact, which resulted in the fire.
That said, there are tons of things the FIA will be investigating after the Grosjean wreck, including:
- Changes in the fuel pocket and / or fuel type
- The steering column, as it trapped Grosjean’s left foot in the early part of the accident
- Mounting the power unit
- Headrest position, specifically in case of fire
- Improvements to fireproof gloves
- Guardrail improvements
- Best barriers
- More efficient fire extinguishing options
So basically, any part of the flaw that didn’t work as expected will be heavily investigated, with updates and improvements coming in the future.
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Running is an inherently dangerous sport and there is always the opportunity to have an accident that defies expectations. But the FIA does a great job of ensuring that there are no repetitions of these accidents.