Zhou Guanyu Says Fire Was Biggest Fear in Horrifying F1 British Grand Prix Crash

Zhou Guanyu says he was worried about fire while stuck in his overturned Alfa Romeo following his crash on the first lap of last weekend’s Formula 1 British Grand Prix.

The 23-year-old, Formula 1’s first Chinese driver, was having his strongest weekend in the series since debuting and had qualified an impressive ninth at Silverstone. That was before what can only be described as a death-defying crash that ended his race on Sunday.

Guanyu's car flipped after being hit by George Russell’s Mercedes on the approach to Silverstone’s Turn 1 off the line. The car then flipped and was dragging across the tarmac upside down, continuing its trajectory across the gravel. The Alfa Romeo C42 then struck the fencing and came to a halt, wedged between the fencing and the tire barrier.

The driver was extricated from the car and able to return to his base in London on Sunday night. He was given the all-clear Thursday to return to the car at this week's F1 Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring. On Thursday, he met the media for the first time since the crash.

Guanyu said that the initial concern was of his hands “because you never know, you can break your hands very easily” in such an accident, before bracing for the accident to come.

“While I was rolling on the ground I knew I would be facing a massive impact coming up because the car wasn’t stopping, so I tried to lock myself in a position that was the safest possible, just waiting for the last impact,” he said. “I was just holding the hands backwards and keeping a reasonable tension so you don’t get flung around when you have that last impact. That was the case, so basically I was just waiting for the last hit.

"Once I was stopped I didn’t know where I was because I was upside down, and the next thing I felt was some leaking. I was not sure if it was from my body or from the car, so I just tried to switch the engine off because the engine was still on at that point. I knew if a fire started it would be difficult to get out, so I switched my engine off and then everything was fine.”