Crash Investigation

The accident started in one of the many fast flowing sections of the lap, with speeds of 260 km/h coming into Turn 9, and 240 km/h coming out of Turn 10. There are TecPro barriers on the outside of Turn 9 and 10. On the inside, drivers get near the concrete wall to get the most speed into Turn 10 and extend onto the curb to retain the speed coming out of the corner. Schumacher had a wobble on the apex of 9 and also on the exit of 10, whilst keeping a higher speed than his previous best lap. So did lift of the throttle slightly to catch the second oversteer, but once on the curb started to increase throttle as usual. But just as he decided to increase the speed, he slit off the curb to facing the wall. With his foot still on the throttle the rear wheels lit up and he had no time to react and catch the car. In Q3 Esteban Ocon in the Renault had a similar moment, but did keep a more consistent half-throttle application onto the curb, meaning the car needed slightly less time to settle in his case.

For Mick it meant he was now facing the wrong way sliding towards the barrier with 200 km/h and an angle of attack of 24 degrees with the wall. But since he had rotated more than 90 degrees around the vertical axis, he hit the wall with the right side of his front wing first. His car absorbed the energy by first breaking the front-right suspension, then he completed the rotation and the next thing to break was the rear-right axle. The sidepod continued to crunch into the wall until the Side Impact Structure (SIP) put a stop to this and his car got pushed off towards the other side of the track. Due to the angle of impact he only lost 40 km/h of speed in the initial 0.146 seconds of the crash. This is equal to a deceleration of 8G. Official reports by F1 state he had a 33G impact, the difference can be explained partly by the main force being sideways to the deceleration, the extra rotation speed after hitting nose first. But of course calculation of G forces depend heavily on the recorder frequency, which can be up to 1000 Hz for the Accident Data Recorder used in F1.

His second impact was at a shallower angle of 13 degrees and the speed had dropped to 125 km/h. He finally came to rest 197 meters after the initial impact. The strength of the new generation 2022 car was properly tested for the first time in a race weekend. But was interesting to see was that two tires had flown completely of their rims and the rear-left had also become loose. This probably aided in making the crash look more dramatic than it was. This year set the start for the new 18 inch wheels and they could be designed to detach in order to prevent having a inflated bouncing wheel on the loose when it does separate from its tethers. On the other side, these tires on its own still weigh 10 kg and can become dangerous projectiles, so it could be something to look into for Pirelli.

This 3D animations shows the different lines the competitors took at that fast righthander, comparing it with a normal (uncompromised) racing line obtained from Max Verstappen’s qualifying Q3 lap, which was good enough for second place on Friday. The image below shows an complete overview of the different racing lines as seen from above.

Due to size of the impact and the required barrier repairs, the race was red flagged. This meant any damage on Hamilton’s car could be fixed without him having to make a pitstop. The stewards did decide to give a 10 second time penalty to Hamilton, which he could serve at his next pit stop without much inconvenience, and two penalty points on his super license. Hamilton went on to take the win late on from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who had been leading since lap 1.

Crash Research

Trackside images and FOM footage to pinpoint the exact position of the cars relative to each other and the circuit edges. This is a careful process but mismatches will always occur, however these are in the order of 10 centimeters or less for important moments, and can deviate to half a meter for irrelevant situations, like hundreds of meters before a crash. As a proof of concept I present here two overlays with FOM footage, which sadly cannot be shown as a full video, due to copyright reasons.

For the ones with a good eye for detail, the onboard camera settings in the render for the image below is different than the one used in the video. This had to be done due to real camera having a fisheye lens, which is not possible to replicate with the render engine (Blender’s Eevee) used for the videos. To replicate a fisheye effect (backwards) raytracing (Cycles render engine) was used to properly match the screenshot from the FOM footage.

Aftermath

After the crash, tire supplier Pirelli was quick to blame debris as the root cause for the tire failures. Later the following week, they adjusted their verdict as they found no evidence of debris and that their tires had “no production or quality defect”. Rather, they said that the “circumferential break on the inner sidewall” , was related to the “running conditions of the tire”, without putting blame at the teams, as they made clear Red Bull and Aston Martin, both followed the mandated starting parameters of the tire. These findings and the vague clarification caused the teams to question Pirelli’s investigation. Furthermore, multiple reporters, and even Max Verstappen himself, noted that if the Red bull had spun the other way round, he could have been hitting the pit wall angled more perpendicular to Verstappen’s trajectory. Ironically, 2016 World Champion Nico Rosberg mentioned in his pre-race virtual track guide how he was fearful of the pit entry when racing at the track in 2016 and that breaking something at full speed there could mean “there is no more you”. So, how dangerous is the pit entry there? Could Max have hit the wall at a dangerous angle? I started recreating Verstappen’s actual accident and propose mirroring its path to see what could have happened. I was surprised myself to find out just how badly the crash could have been!

Crash Animation

Crash Details

The following is not an official report. It is based on careful study of video footage and post-crash images and serves as a plot of the animation. The car hit the safety barrier at over 220 km,h, at an angle close to 60 degrees (90 degrees is perpendicular). The destruction of the front wing and nose, and deformation of the guardrail absorb some of the forces and rotate the car to a slightly shallower 40 degrees, before the front of the monocoque meets a guardrail post. The post shoots out and away from its foundation, simultaneously breaking the middle guardrail at its bolts. The front of the car goes completely through, taking the right-front wheel along, before the halo pushed the top guardrail up and away from Grosjean’s helmet. Then, the upper guardrail is caught by the roll-hoop structure, which is strong enough to prevent the car from penetrating the barrier further. The car slides to the next post, while the rear of the car starts breaking away. The back part of an F1 car is attached to the rear of the survival cell, among others, with 6 long bolts, designed to break in high-speed accidents to dissipate energy. At this point, fuel escapes from the fuel system, how much is unclear, but it does not take long before it ignites into a fireball. The monocoque continues to pivot around the roll-hoop and T-cam structure until it is stuck with the upper guardrail directly above the halo. After struggling to find a way out for over 25 seconds, Grosjean manages to find a gap from behind the guardrail and stands up from his cockpit.

Aftermath

Because the crash happened within 30 seconds after the race start, the medical car was still following close behind. This meant medical driver Alan van der Merwe en Dr. Ian Roberts were quickly at the scene of the accident. They approached the survival cell and used a fire extinguisher to get closer to Romain and help him step out over the barrier. Grosjean had suffered burns to his hands, leaving him unable to start the final two races of his career. Meanwhile, the race was red flagged and the guardrail barrier was replaced by temporary concrete blocks. After everybody knew Grosjean would be okay, the conversation quickly went to the halo. Almost three years after its introduction into F1 and six years after fellow Frenchman Jules Bianchi’s fatal accident that started it all, the halo finally proved its importance. The main remaining discussions are about the guardrail barrier and how it contributed to the explosion.

Canal+ SPORT REPORTER documentary: Retour de flammes

This animation was initially created in assignment of the canal plus group for their documentary Retour de Flammes about Romain Grosjean’s 2020 Bahrain accident. The full video can be seen below or you can watch the documentary on MyCanal via this link.

Original video of the animation featured in the Canal+ documentary “Retour de flammes” by SPORT REPORTER

Aftermath

In the post-race interviews, Alonso and Guttierez agreed that it was a racing incident. The stewards agreed as well that ‘no driver was wholly or predominantly to blame’. Eventhough Alonso walked away from the crash feeling okay, doctors ordered Alonso to skip the next race at the Bahrain Grand Prix, two weeks after this crash. With scans revealing fractures and a small pneumothorax (collapse) on the lung, it was also doubtful if he could join the race in China two weeks after that, but he eventually did. The main discussion of this crash came two years later with the arrival of the halo.

Aftermath

Within 20 seconds after the crash, marshalls began extracting Kubica from the wreckage. He was taken to hospital and it was revealed to the public during the race that Kubica had no fractures and a mild concussion. There was a discussion about the barriers and the bumpy runoff. For the following year, it was decided to move the wall closer to the track and add more debris fencing. Amazingly, Kubica won that race in 2008, which to this day is his sole victory.