After a short one-week break, F1 finally ushered in the last three races of the season starting last weekend, three back-to-back night races! In the back-to-back races earlier this season, the team and its drivers used different race strategies to provide the audience with many wonderful overtaking shots and classic team tactics. And when another back-to-back race comes, plus it is a night race, people are also full of expectations for the upcoming Bahrain Grand Prix.
However, such expectations only lasted for about a minute after the official start, and were broken by an epic car accident.
When the race came out of Turn 3 on the first lap, and the drivers were still fighting for the position after the start, Grosjean of the Haas team was involved in a line change. Kvyat of the Toro Rosso Racing team collided behind him. The car hit the guardrail at the side of the track at high speed. The impact force of up to 53G caused the car to directly hit the guardrail and break. The leaked fuel caused a fire that instantly surrounded the car and those sitting in it. Grosjean inside.
Fortunately, the crash did not make Grosjean lose consciousness. He quickly escaped from the cockpit and succeeded with the help of the pursuit car driver Alan Van Der Merwe and the track staff who arrived later. Escape from the fire. Only 28 seconds passed from the time of impact to leaving the car. After being sent to the hospital, examination confirmed that Grosjean had only minor burns on his hands and feet, and he could be discharged after a few days of recovery. This news is also the best comfort to all the drivers and staff in the paddock, as well as all the fans.
Looking back on F1's seventy-year history, Grosjean's accidents can be considered very serious, but thankfully, he only suffered minor injuries. So what saved his life in this accident, and what inspiration can it have for more everyday civilian cars?
The most obvious reason for the driver to successfully escape from the fire is the racing suit worn by the driver. As early as 1975, the FIA ??International Automobile Federation (hereinafter referred to as "FIA") issued mandatory certification provisions for racing suits to ensure the safety of racing drivers. However, it was not until 1976 that Niki Lauda was trapped in a burning racing car. Unable to escape immediately, resulting in extensive burns all over his body and almost death, the racing world truly realized the importance of fire-resistant racing suits.
Modern racing suits are generally made of a material called "Nomex", which is a patented product registered by the American DuPont Company in 1967. Nomex material is a good high-temperature flame-retardant fiber. Racing suits sewn from it can provide drivers with 12 seconds of effective protection from a 700°C fire. All stitching on racing suits, even advertising strips, must meet the "12-second protection time" standard.
In this accident, it took Grosjean 19 seconds from the time the car caught fire to the time Grosjean climbed out of the car on his own. F1 rules require teams to design cars so that drivers can escape within five seconds. Obviously, this time is almost impossible to achieve in many cases. At this time, the fire-proof clothing worn by the driver plays a vital protective role. Excellent fire-resistant clothing can withstand raging fire and give riders enough time to escape.
Of course, the racing suit on his body only protects Grosjean from being burned by the fire. In almost all accidents, the most important thing is to protect the integrity of the passenger compartment to the maximum extent. In early F1 cars, drivers sat in a bathtub-sized cockpit just like taking a bath. The only difference from taking a bath was that there was less hot water and you needed to be tied to the seat with a seat belt. A similar design can still be seen on Caterham.
In 1981, F1 introduced a monocoque cockpit, and the driver's cab was arranged in this monocoque cockpit. With improvements in rigid design and materials science, monocoque cockpits can withstand greater and greater impact forces and are almost indestructible. Including the serious car accident suffered by Senna in 1994 and the accident in Grosjean, the monocoque cockpit maintained sufficient integrity.
In the past few decades, only a few cases of damage to the monocoque cockpit occurred in Kubica's 2007 series of car accidents in Canada. In that accident, Kubica only suffered damage to his feet. Minor injuries.
When Grosjean's monocoque cockpit passes through the guardrail at an acceleration of 53G, without the Halo system, there is a high chance that the guardrail will directly touch the driver. Even if the guardrail does not harm the driver, it is likely to block his escape space. The Halo system did a good job of "pushing away" the guardrail this time, leaving enough room for Grosjean to escape.
The Halo system was introduced into F1 racing cars also because of an accident. At the 2014 F1 Japan Grand Prix, the 25-year-old Bianchi drove his car and crashed into a tow truck that was being rescued, causing a serious accident. Since 2018, the FIA ??has forced F1 and F2 cars to install the Halo system to ensure the space at the top of the passenger compartment. This system is combined with the monocoque cockpit to make the cockpit of the F1 car act like a cage, which can resist the impact of external objects on the people inside the car from multiple angles.
The same safety principle is actually reflected in civilian vehicles. Taking the crash test we are currently discussing as an example, the Halo system plays more of a role in the A-pillar and roof of civilian vehicles. When we were still arguing about the A-pillar breaking at 64km/h, the Halo system made of titanium was required to withstand 15 times the net load of the racing car and the impact force of 20kg wheels at 225km/h.
As for the body of a civilian vehicle, although the common cage structure body and the single-piece cockpit design concept are completely different, their original intention is to better protect the safety of the occupants in the car. Of course, monocoque cockpits also exist in civilian cars, but due to cost constraints, you can only see them on a small number of supercars.
Now pushing the time back to 0.01s when the crash occurred, a device that has existed for many years but was not that inconspicuous also played a crucial role in Grosjean’s subsequent escape. That is the Hans system. The full name of Hans is Headand Neck Support, and the Chinese name is the head and neck support system. After losing its protection, in the most serious case, the rider is likely to lose consciousness due to a skull base fracture due to a severe impact.
Let’s go back to civilian cars. Although you don’t need to wear a helmet for daily driving, you don’t need to use the Hans system. In most cases, the important task of protecting the neck falls on the seat headrest. After a collision with a civilian vehicle or a rear-end collision, the injury to the neck caused by whiplash is called whiplash. The whiplash test is usually ignored in many crash tests. The purpose of its existence is to test whether a vehicle will cause whiplash to its occupants in the event of a collision.
Written at the end
After experiencing such a major crash but successfully escaping, Grosjean was lucky. But in addition to thanking the staff who braved the fire to rescue, we also need to thank the people who have devoted their energy, time and even their lives for safety over the past 100 years since the birth of cars and even racing cars. The occurrence of an accident is only the difference between 0 and 100 for everyone. The accident Grosjean encountered this time may further promote the improvement of F1 racing and even automobile safety.
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.