FIA uses major accidents from 2020 for development of simulation software

The 2020 F1 season was short but sweet with some spectacular races. This was due not only to exciting battles on track, but also to a number of violent crashes. The FIA is now taking these accidents into account in the development of accident simulation software.

Especially during Romain Grosjean's accident on the first lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix, the world held its breath. Once it was clear that Grosjean had got out of the car relatively unscathed, people watched the replay in disbelief. How could this have happened?

Even the FIA had not expected such a serious crash at that point of the track. As a result, the crash barrier was not well protected against an impact and could have been torn open. In their in-house magazine Auto, the FIA discusses how they are developing software to better predict these types of crashes in the future. From that analysis, a wider tyre pile or a TecPro barrier, for example, can then be placed at a certain spot on the track.

In addition to Grosjean's crash, the FIA has also used the crashes of Daniil Kvyat at Silverstone, Lance Stroll at Mugello and Charles Leclerc at Monza in 2020. These are added to the World Accident Database, which stores information on incidents from all racing classes.