Romain Grosjean was lucky enough to avoid further severe burns after his helmet visor melted during his fiery Grand Prix accident in Bahrain, FIA doctor Ian Roberts announced.
Roberts went into the flames to help Haas driver Grosjean escape the barrier after he and medical driver Alan van der Merwe quickly joined the local Marshals.
Roberts revealed the first thing he told the French driver to “sit down” explained, “He was very shaky and his visor was completely opaque and melted. I had to take off his helmet just to check that everything else was okay.
“He had some pain in his foot and hands, so from that point on we knew it was safe enough to get him into [medical] Car, a bit more protection, get some gel on his burns, then get him to the ambulance and to the medical center. ”
Grosjean became involved in a fireball after his car was split in two on impact during the accident, but the French driver escaped from the flames with minor burns.
Such scenes are extremely rare in F1 due to important safety factors around fuel tanks and Roberts announced that despite the severe impact, the medical crew had to first check the effects of the fire.
“Something like that will be flames, smoke inhalation, respiratory problems, but nothing went into his helmet, we also looked at his helmet,” said Roberts, whose face was scorched during the rescue.
“When we arrived [it was a] Very strange scene with half a car pointing in the wrong direction and a lot of heat right over the barrier. Then if I looked to the right, I could see Romain trying to get up.
“We needed a way to get to him. We have the marshal there with the fire extinguisher. That was just enough to push the flame away when Romain got high enough to then drag him over the barrier.
“When we looked at him clinically, we were pretty pleased with him from a life-threatening injury standpoint. Then we just tried to convince him of the injuries we could see.”
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