Tradition and excitement can't outweigh safety... as Romain Grosjean now knows

ByCarrie Dunn

Updated 02/12/2020 at 12:56 GMT

A few years ago, Romain Grosjean was one of the drivers who was most outspokenly vocal in criticising the introduction of the halo system to F1. He has now changed his mind after it saved his life.

"I wasn’t for the halo some years ago, but I think it’s the greatest thing that we’ve brought to Formula 1, and without it I wouldn’t be able to speak with you today."

It was an honest and heartfelt message from Romain Grosjean, speaking from his hospital bed after suffering burns in the inferno that consumed his mangled Haas by the side of the Bahrain track.

After an accident like that, anyone would be forgiven for overlooking their outspoken words of a few years previously - and Grosjean was by no means the only driver who criticised the introduction of the halo head protection system.

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The discussions began in earnest five years ago as governing body the FIA sought some kind of technology that could deflect debris away from drivers' heads in accidents.

The halo was the only design that managed to satisfy crash tests and been tested on cars, with a rival "shield" design proving to interfere too much with drivers' vision.

But drivers weren't completely impressed with the idea - or its execution.

"F1 is a very public sport and it's not the best thing to have probably," said Daniil Kvyat. "It doesn't look so good, and in my personal opinion we are racing to very high safety standards [already].

"I don't have a strong will to have it on my car, if I had to make a choice."

And when it was confirmed to be mandatory as from 2018, the drivers still weren't entirely on board.

Renault's Jolyon Palmer told reporters it would "be the end of Formula One as we know it".

"I think it’s an over-reaction to problems in other series," he added, referring to deaths in IndyCar racing resulting from head injuries after crashes.

And the other vocal opponent was...

...Romain Grosjean.

"It was a sad day for Formula 1 when it was announced, and I am still against it," he said, fretting that it might interfere with seeing the lights on the grid. "I don't think it's got a space in Formula 1."

At the time, Grand Prix Drivers' Association chairman Alex Wurz claimed that drivers would always support moves by the FIA to improve safety, no matter how controversial.

"Over recent decades, we have seen increasing speeds and ever faster lap times, and this ultimate racing quest is solely possible due to increasing safety.

"Equally, over the same period of time we have seen an increase in popularity of our sport.

"F1 is a role model for ever increasing safety without jeopardising performance."

He wasn't entirely correct. Although F1 has made fantastic strides when it comes to safety, there has certainly been pushback with every innovation.

Romain Grosjean's miracle escape

Progress in any sphere will always worry some people, who fear the loss of tradition. In Formula 1 there is additionally an element that somehow seems to think that increased mortal peril makes for a more compelling spectator sport, and a more fulfilling job for drivers.

Sir Jackie Stewart, the legendary triple world champion, could confirm that. His own safety campaign in the 1960s met a massive backlash at the time - and he drew parallels with his own experiences and the criticism of the halo.

"My view is: if you can save a life... and if some of these people had been to as many funerals as I've been to and wept as much as I have and seen close friends die [they wouldn't object]," he said at the time.

"I read correspondents' columns that [say] 'this is the end of Formula 1 for me, I'm out of it, I can't stick with this.' Well, that was like people saying ,'Jackie Stewart's going to kill motorsport' because of track safety.

"I think that you have to have as much safety as you can find and to think that you are destroying motorsport and Formula 1 - I mean, the full-face helmet was criticised because you couldn't see the driver's face so much.

"Preventive medicine is considerably more important than corrective medicine. Corrective medicine is [also] considerably more expensive than preventive medicine.

"Henry Surtees got killed not by his wheel but by somebody else's. Well, that can happen any time. That was just bad luck - but why depend on luck?"

With an approved safety system available, the FIA, the teams, and the drivers no longer had to.

And Grosjean would also do well to remember that even when expressing his reservations about the halo, he had the sense to realise how much work went into its development, and the reasoning behind its creation.

"As a GPDA [Grand Prix Drivers' Association] member and director, as a driver, I need to thank the FIA for all the research because the research has been pretty strong, the halo is a strong device against a lot of cases [of accidents]," he added back in 2018.

Just over two years later - with only some burns to show for an incident where he was sitting in a cockpit split in two, embedded in a crash barrier, and in flames - Grosjean and all of Formula 1 owe them another round of thanks.

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