Daniil Kvyat has said he has spoken to Romain Grosjean after the pair’s collision, which triggered the Haas driver’s horrifying crash last weekend.
Grosjean struck a guardrail at 53G, his car exploding into flames, leaving him with burns to his hands.Kvyat said he had met with Grosjean briefly and was relieved to see him doing well. “We exchanged a couple of words,” said the AlphaTauri driver. “We are in the same hotel and I saw him and we spoke a bit briefly about that he’s alright and he showed me his boxing gloves.
“It’s good, I also texted him – everyone, I think, texted him after the race and it was just great to see him in a good state, good spirits also. Of course, I hope he realises that this was a very good escape and that everyone’s happy for him here.”
Kvyat said the fire which engulfed Grosjean’s car, which he was trapped in for 28 seconds, is the biggest priority for the FIA to address following the crash.
“What’s been spoken about, like the car – the car safety will be always developed, we know we are in good hands. We saw the Halo has been so strong in helping Romain in this crash, it was amazing.
He believes the severity of Grosjean’s crash was due to a combination of factors and said he expects the sport will draw valuable lessons from it.
“The impact was just crazy,” said Kvyat, “it seemed like a perfect storm for that the impact because of how the barrier was inclined, the type of barrier and so on.
“If you look at this weekend, they changed the kind of barrier to [absorb] the impact and I think it’s good that we will look into these things even more, with that anticipation, in the future. I know that the guys in the FIA are doing a great job, they will keep pushing but there will always be something that can be improved.”
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socksolid (@socksolid)
6th December 2020, 8:51
With grosjean on his way out of f1 I think the biggest danger has been solved. And I am not even joking. Grosjean has always been unpredictable and prone to errors and big crashes. One of the key things he lacks is analyzing the risks. He takes risks just as easily at 80kph monaco hairpins as he does in 250kph corners in the wet. Fia needs to look into the mirror and see were they really on top of grosjean’s safety when it comes to simply being a safe driver. Should he even be allowed back?
In the mid term there are some other things f1 needs to look at. The accident was pretty close and it would be really bad for f1 to just analyze the wreck and see what worked and what didn’t. It did not take a lot more for grosjean to have suffered serious injuries. It would have not taken much more to make it a two car crash. The car could have landed little differently. The extraction out of the car specifically had some issues that imho are more urgent to solve than the barrier issues. We have had couple of incidents where the halo has helped but also looked like it somewhat obstructed the driver getting out. Alonso had a big crash in melbourne some years back and grosjean now. In both cases it seemed to be a surprise to everyone they got out of the car. It should not be a surprise. It should be a given. Grosjean has described having some issues and I think those issues are the first thing to solve.
Back before the halo the safety thinking was to move the driver little by little more in in the car. Deeper inside the cockpit while at the same time the sides of the cockpit were also made bigger to provide more support and protection in crashes. Maybe it is time to re-evaluate some of these things and make the cockpit little more open to guarantee even better extraction options for the driver in case we have a similar incident.
At the same time f1 cars are quicker than ever before in corners. Massive downforce levels and high weight causes high speeds and create huge collision energies making these cars difficult to contain when they hit barriers at high angles. This means f1 drivers need to be safe and sometimes in the past it should have meant the driver sits out a race if fia can not say with confidence that the driver is safe. The key ingredient in safety is the human behaviour and when it comes to drivers f1 could do better job.
OOliver
6th December 2020, 10:00
I think its a challenge finding the right balance because different accidents and environments have an impact on how the safety technologies either succeed or fail. If the driver is more embedded within the car and it goes into the barrier, there would be a tighter hole it makes and even less room to escape. Part of what created difficulty for Grosjean besides being embedded within the barrier, was that there was virtually nowhere for his headrest to go further making a constricted area even tighter.
I think the initial safety technologies serve to buy the drivers some time to allow help to come through but you can’t solve one problem completely without sometimes creating another unforeseen one.
nickthegreek
6th December 2020, 11:59
I tend to agree here. Maldonado, Grosjean & Kvyat in the first part of his career WERE a danger themselves…
Dave
6th December 2020, 12:54
And next year we have Nikita…
erikje
6th December 2020, 12:46
An accident happens when several things go wrong. You will never avoid the risk of accidents. The fact F1 drivers are able to shut down fear and try things “normal” people would not even consider, shows the need for safety equipment and measures. They worked in this extreme case. As always there are lessons to be learned and act to make things even better. FIA is doing a great job on that behalf.
Is Grosjean a unsafe driver should be seen apart from the safety measures.
Duncan Idaho (@didaho)
6th December 2020, 12:37
Say what you like about him but he’s a polite and considerate guy, imagine him replying to all the texts “T” ow “h” ow “a” ow “n”…