"The first thing I thought was: How is he going to get out of here quickly?"
- GPblog.com
It was a miracle that Romain Grosjean came out of the flames alive after his crash at the Bahrain Grand Prix. The moment has therefore been analysed, as in the Formula 1 podcast of NOS. Amber Brantsen discussed the race with Louis Dekker, Jan Lammers, and Indycar driver Rinus van Kalmthout.
Van Kalmthout also saw it happen live: "It was very spectacular. It was already a bit messy in the backfield, and suddenly I saw Grosjean diving into the wall, and the moment of impact was just one big explosion."
The fact that Grosjean managed to escape from the burning wreckage, partly thanks to the halo, was not known at the time. "The first thing I thought was: How is he going to get out of here quickly? You saw the back of the car, but you didn't see where the front was. You only saw one big fireball."
Getting out of the car quickly
Jan Lammers added: "You have to be able to prove to the FIA that you can get out of the car in time. Especially in the beginning this is a huge mess, but I do realise that if something really happens, you can do it in a quarter of the time. Somehow you'll find energy, and of course you'll be pumped full of adrenaline.
"Apart from the fact that it's an enormous blow, you don't see anything, you have absolutely no idea of your surroundings, so your orientation is completely gone. So it's purely intuitive that you perform all those actions."