Formula 1’s medical crew explained that the first thought upon arriving at the scene of Romain Grosjean’s Bahrain Grand Prix accident was to determine the location of the survival cell.
Grosjean suffered a high-speed crash at Turn 3 on the opening lap as his VF-20 speared across the circuit and hit the barriers head-on.
Grosjean’s car was split in two upon impact, with the monocoque piercing the barriers, and the car erupted into flames.
Dr. Ian Roberts and Medical Car driver Alan van der Merwe, who follow the rear of the field at every race, quickly tended to Grosjean.
“The approach to the scene was very odd,” said Roberts in an interview with F1TV.
“We’ve got a fireball to the right and as we approached there was half a car pointing in the wrong direction, and the big question is ‘where’s the other half [of the car] and why’s this fire going on?’
“It soon became obvious as we pulled up and could see through the gap in the barrier that Romain was there and engulfed in the flames.”
In how they were prepared for such a violent accident Roberts said: “At the beginning of every day we run through a set of scenarios anyway, that may not even happen.
“There’s a thought process already going, and fire is actually one of them. But somebody’s in trouble and you go and help.”
Grosjean is currently being treated in hospital for minor burns.
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