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This must be a pure natural instinct - a human’s fight for survival

"This must be a pure natural instinct - a human’s fight for survival"

01-12-2020 17:42 Last update: 18:20
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GPblog.com

Former F1-driver Jolyon Palmer was shocked by Romain Grosjean's crash in the Haas car, as everyone who watched the race in Bahrain last Sunday must have been. In his column on Formula1.com he gives an insight into the situation from the driver's perspective: how do you, as a racer, deal with the danger?

Palmer argues that while drivers are aware of the risks on the track, they will never be distracted by them: “All Formula 1 drivers know that motorsport is dangerous, and that accidents can happen, but nobody ever drives with any concern about the dangers in their head, and they don’t ever think the dangers will happen to them.”

Palmer then takes us behind the scenes, explaining how drivers are trained to get out of the car as quickly as possible should a dangerous situation arise. “Extraction from the cockpit is one of many safety checks that teams and drivers have to undergo before they can even turn a wheel in pre season testing. … When I was driving in 2017, the test would be that you had to get out of the cockpit in five seconds.”

Natural instinct

Palmer also illustrates how he thinks Grosjean must have felt when he had to drag himself out of a burning Haas: “It’s a miracle he was able to get out at all considering all that was going on around him, this must be a pure natural instinct - a human’s fight for survival.”