Yahoo Autos F1 Official Brawn Says 'Things Failed in Unpredicted Ways' in Grosjean Crash
F1 managing director Ross Brawn was surprised that the barriers failed and that there was a fireball.
Haas F1 driver Romain Grosjean suffered burns to the back of both hands and remains hospitalized for a second day in Bahrain.
F1 safety crews were on the scene in less than a minute and Grosjean miraculously got out of the car in 28 seconds.
Formula 1 managing director Ross Brawn was critical of safety systems that failed Sunday in Romain Grosjean's fiery crash on the first lap of the F1 Bahrain Grand Prix.
While Brawn was quick to praise safety workers and the halo safety device for saving the Haas F1 Team driver's life, he was also searching for answers to questions that will be addressed by F1 and the FIA in the coming months.
"Undoubtedly, we've got to do a very deep analysis of all the events that occurred because there were a number of things that shouldn't have happened," Brawn said in a televised interview with Sky TV after the race. "The fire was worrying, the split of the barriers was worrying. I think the positives were the safety of the car, and that's what pulled us through today."
Brawn said that he was surprised at the failure of the barrier that split and allowed Grosjean's car to penetrate. On the other hand, had Grosjean's car not penetrated the barrier, he could have possibly been trapped inside the car during the inferno that developed.
As it turned out, Grosjean was able to free himself and get out of the car in what officials estimated was 28 seconds. Grosjean was hospitalized in Bahrain for burns to the back of both hands.
"Barriers splitting was a classic problem many years ago," Brawn said. "Normally, it resulted in a fatality. There's absolutely no doubt that the halo was the factor that saved the day. It saved Romain.
"If you recall, there quite a lot of controversy at the time about introducing (the halo), and I don't think now, especially after today, (anyone) can doubt the validity of that and devalue it. Hats off to everyone involved because it was a lifesaver today."
Brawn added that he was interested in seeing the final g force load in the crash.
"I think there was quite a high g load, as well," he said. "We have to look at how everything failed, because everything is designed to fail in the progression. But in a crash that catastrophic, obviously things failed in unpredicted ways. Obviously, the car came apart.
