With three races remaining in the Formula 1 2020 season, Haas driver Romain Grosjean had accepted that his time in F1 would be over shortly. But having started from P19 at the first of two races at Bahrain that year, his F1 career would only continue a further 30 seconds. He had a clean getaway and gained a position on the rundown to turn one. Meanwhile, Daniil Kvyat had a poor start and broke early for the first corner. He was pinched on the inside line and got overtaken by Grosjean for P17 at turn 2. In front of them, four cars did not go into one, and they all slowed each other down accelerating out of turn 3. The fast approaching Grosjean decided in a split second to cross the track to the far-right side to overtake his teammate Kevin Magnussen. Perhaps he invested just a little bit extra attention in overtaking his teammate cleanly, having been in clashes with Kevin in the past. Either way, the Frenchman did not notice Kvyat on his right and the two made contact. This sent the Haas into a slight spin and on a trajectory straight to the guardrail barrier.
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