FIA safety innovations saved Grosjean's life - van der Merwe

FIA medical car driver Alan van der Merwe believes the collective effort of the sport's safety innovations played a part in ensuring Romain Grosjean did not suffer a more serious fate following his crash at the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Grosjean's car was engulfed in flames after making contact with the inside barrier on the exit of turn three, escaping with the aid of van der Merwe and Dr Ian Roberts as well as the marshalls positioned at the service road next to the incident scene.

When asked whether it was a relief to see the Frenchman emerge from the wreckage under his own power, van der Merwe said: "Not yet. We had some relief when we got back here and he was okay.

"It was very impressive. It just goes to show that all the systems we have developed, everything worked hand-in-hand.

"The halo, the barriers, the seatbelts, everything worked how it should and without just one of those things, it could have been a very different outcome."

As in every race in F1, van der Merwe and Roberts were positioned at the back of the grid in the FIA medical car, running the first lap behind the field in order to deal with any potential first-lap incident.

Van der Merwe revealed it "was a big surprise for us," and explained how he and Roberts dealt with the situation.

"We have never seen that much fire. In 12 years, I have never seen that much fire and an impact like that.

"We just took a little while to process what's going on. I am sure it was only a second or so but it felt like ages. Romain just started to actually get out of the car himself which is pretty amazing after an accident like that."

Related

More F1 news

Latest F1 news

Ferrari F1 boss forced to calm down 'emotional' Lewis Hamilton

• 7 minutes ago

Toto Wolff confirms Mercedes drivers meeting after Lewis Hamilton F1 defeat

• 49 minutes ago

Christian Horner F1 return gets major boost as FIA chief backs new team plan

• 1 hour ago

Aston Martin chief confirms Adrian Newey decision after Barcelona misery

• 2 hours ago

F1 News Today: Lewis Hamilton lashes out, Ferrari chief Elkann sends a message

• 3 hours ago

The wild reason why Audi star Nico Hulkenberg retired from the Barcelona Grand Prix

• Yesterday 22:55