‘I don’t know how I survived’ - Zhou Guanyu opens up on Silverstone horror crash for first time ahead of Austrian GP
/dnl.eurosport.com/sd/img/placeholder/eurosport_logo_1x1.png){kind=logo}
Updated 07/07/2022 at 19:03 GMT
The Alfa Romeo driver crashed on the first Abbey corner during the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in a major incident that saw his car flip, skid across the gravel, go over the tyre wall and collide into the catch fencing. Zhou has given his account of the incident ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.
'Halo helped me survive' - Zhou Guanyu on Silverstone horror crash
Alfa Romeo driver Zhou Guanyu has spoken to the media at length for the first time after his frightening crash at Silverstone on Sunday during the British Grand Prix.
Zhou - 2022’s sole rookie - suffered his first major crash seconds into the race when his car made contact with Mercedes' George Russell, who had been clipped by AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly.
The 23-year-old’s car rolled upside down and across the gravel, before it flipped over the tyre wall in front of a startled crowd, where he was trapped between the barriers and the catch fencing.
Amazingly, Zhou walked away from the wreckage unharmed - with only his helmet suffering a few scratches - and on Thursday gave a full account of the incident for the first time.
“Once the flip happened, the first thing I was trying to do was trying to release my hand off the steering wheel,” he explained. “Because you never know, you can break your hand very easily with a crash like that, and because while I was just rolling on the ground I knew that I’d be facing a massive impact coming up because the car wasn’t stopping.
“And yeah, I tried to lock myself in a position that is the most safest possible, just waiting for the last impact. Just holding the hand backwards, but keep it reasonably tensioned so it doesn’t go flying around when you have that last impact. So that was the case.
“Once I was basically stopped, I didn’t know where I was, because I was upside down. Basically, there was [some fluid] leaking. I wasn’t sure if it was from my body or is this from the car?
“So I just tried to switch off the engine because the engine was still on by then. I knew if the fire starts, it will be difficult to get out. So I switched my engine off. And everything was fine.”
The Chinese driver admitted it wasn’t until he saw the pictures that he realised he was stuck in between the barrier and fencing, or who he had made contact with prior.
“I didn’t realise I was between the barriers. I was thinking I was next to the barriers. But I was actually between the barrier and the fence, which I don’t know how I survived.
“But looking back, obviously, the halo I saw saved me.”
Zhou told the media he “felt sick” watching the incident back.
He took the day off on Monday and has since returned to the gym where he continues preparations for Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix, insisting he feels “back to normal”.
Alfa Romeo are conducting an investigation alongside the FIA, and according to Zhou, there’s already one obvious problem to be attended to.
“I already spoke to the team during the whole week, with the first impact and where I landed on the first flip,” Zhou said. “The team said it’s still investigating but the first hit is much harder than what they tested (to pass the) safety tests – so it’s like, a few times harder than numbers we run for tests.
“That’s probably created a problem that came up straight away.
“I’m more curious for the future, can we change something about the barriers? So you don’t have a driver getting stuck.”
Zhou confirmed he is looking forward to returning to the track as soon as possible, and has no reservations about getting back behind the wheel.
“Happy to have back-to-back races because if you had a summer break after that would be terrible, because you would be thinking about it, repeating the crash in your mind again and again,” Zhou said.
“Even though you try and avoid it, you would somehow find it somewhere. Good to be back [racing] as soon as I could.”
Scan me
Related Topics
Share this article
Advertisement
Advertisement