BURNING ISSUES
Brawn demands answers
FORMULA ONE chief Ross Brawn last night called on the sport to find out why Romain Grosjean’s car exploded into a fireball.
Grosjean escaped with minor injuries after his Haas car speared through metal barriers, cutting it in two and bursting into flames on the opening lap of Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
Haas said yesterday that treatment on his hands is “going well” but that he will spend another night in hospital.
The sport’s governing body, the FIA, have started their investigation and will analyse data from Grosjean’s car to determine what caused the crash.
There will also be careful scrutiny into why it veered through the metal barriers and managing director Brawn says it is vital they uncover just how the car split.
He said: “The FIA, working with the team, have to understand the dynamics of what happened to see if improvements are possible.
“It was a pretty severe impact and there are limits as to what you’d be able to contain or control. But penetrating the barrier like that has to be understood. It also has to be understood why there was a fire and why the car broke in two.
“The FIA will now take time to analyse and work out what can be done better. Hats off to everyone involved, because the driver walked away from a huge accident. The FIA did a super job getting everything back in shape sowecould so we could run the race in as safe a way as possible.”
Grosjean, 34, scrambled to get out of his burning wreckage for almost half a minute before leaping to safety and escaping with just minor burns to his hands.
But his helmet visor had melted, with F1 medic Ian Roberts, who was one of the first on the scene, revealing: “He was very shaky and his visor was completely opaque opaqueandmelted and melted. I Ihadtoget had to get his hishelmet helmet off just to check everything was okay.”
Some have criticised the failure of the safety barriers but it was testament to the regulations that the once- controversial halo safety device saved Grosjean.
Brawn added: “I think everyone is proud of the safety measures which have been developed in the last few years. The halo played a huge part.”
The FIA will now ensure that the same track is safe to host the Sakhir Grand Prix on Sunday. Grosjean will be replaced by Brazilian reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi.