So... F1 crash anyone?

[Jimmy Higgins]

So, for those that didn't know, there was a horrific accident in F1 over the weekend that should have killed the driver. It was perhaps the most unusual accident in decades in motorsports as a relatively benign (not quite up to full speed) crash ended up tearing a car into two, puncturing a barrier, engulfing in flames. If you see the after math of the accident, you'll wonder how it was possible someone lived, forget, managed to get out of the vehicle, on their own.

Race car driving safety has come a loooooooooooooong way. And we saw just how far, despite a catastrophic failure in a "safety" barrier. The "halo", a relatively new safety device, is being credited for the driver's head not being decapitated, because only the bottom half of the barrier was punctured, which would have meant the driver's head would likely have been hitting the top half of the barrier during the accident.

I can only imagine the following investigation will ban whatever the heck that safety barrier was. The driver, Romain Grosjean suffered injuries that Nicki Lauda would be happy over due to the duration of his exposure in the fire, relatively just the hands and ankles! So as much as the halo helped save this driver's life,

 

[Worldtraveller]

Yeah, apparently, the telemetry registered a peak of 53G. That's pretty insane, but for a brief peak like that, utterly survivable with the right safety equipment. Aircraft seats are what I'm most familiar with, so I have some familiarity with the safety engineering in these types of situations.

What always amazes me is the safety in Moto GP, World Superbike, and similar racing series where you don't have that shell around you, just leather and some very sophisticated tech.

Watch this one to get a good idea of the tech and safety (plus just the crazy near misses!).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGPrHj1nPt0