| Re: How Romain Grosjean walked away from F1’s scariest crash in decades
Another good long-form article on this crash. A race car crash from hell Quote:
In addition to the fabric, Grosjean’s special Nomex-powered AlpineStars suit almost certainly incorporated decades of precision garment design. According to standards set by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, the governing body of Formula One, those snazzy epaulettes must be strong enough to use as handles to pull a driver out of a wreck if they are unconscious. Some suit designs also have fancy features like quilting— stitched patterns of air pockets that expand when exposed to heat and that give the driver additional thermal barrier to further delay any burning of flesh. Even the thread used to attach the advertising badges is regulated and tested in a process they call homologation, to ensure it doesn’t melt into a driver’s skin.
Watching a survival video like Grosjean’s, you can almost picture the combined work of Hubbard, Stapp, Sweeny—and everyone else who contributed to materials safety—joining forces to save a life. And it’s not just race car drivers who owe them a debt of thanks. All of that work has now saturated the civilian world. Millions of lives have been saved by advances in seat belts, Nomex-crafted gear for firefighters, and car designs that protect the head and neck.
Perhaps Paul Schiffelbein described it best when he said these crashes “are revelations.” Watching Grosjean’s car smash into a wall that should have killed him, then seeing him climb out of a fire that should have burned him, is, indeed, a kind of miracle. Knowing the racer suffered nothing more than minor wounds to his hands, feet, and ankles, all because of science, Schiffelbein says, “just floored me.”
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7th December 2020, 09:46
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Thanks
