At 270 km/h, a 59-Second Rescue and Racing's Four-Part Safety Chain

Millroy was taken to Ruijin Hospital North. He suffered six broken ribs on his right side, multiple fractures to his collarbone and hands and a punctured right lung. A CT scan a week later found a small cervical fracture. He could not remember the 30 seconds before the crash or the hour after it, and was discharged after two weeks. His helmet visor had shattered and his HANS device had broken.

The crash began on lap 7 when the No. 33 BMW and No. 37 Ferrari made contact while contesting position. Both lost control and slid toward the T14 hairpin, and the No. 37 Ferrari hit the No. 91 Ferrari 296 GT3 from the side as it negotiated the apex. The cars had just braked from the end of the longest straight, and the collision speed was close to 270 km/h.

In early October, at the Guangdong International Circuit, the Green Alcohol Super Ji League PRO held its second race. Gao Xiang, who had won from pole the previous day, collided with Li Jiaxi before Turn 8 in the closing laps, bringing out a red flag. Days later Gao wrote on Weibo that at about 150 km/h he broke three ribs in his back and would withdraw from racing for the rest of the year. It was the second serious accident on a Chinese circuit in just over a month.

Viewed from impact to extrication, modern racing safety works as a four-part relay. The car is designed to break and spread the load. HANS holds the head and neck. Halo and the roll hoop protect the top of the cockpit. Track workers, firefighters and medics then take the driver out. The first three layers buy only the instant of the crash; once the car stops, the hardware has finished its job.

The first layer is the car itself. Engineers deliberately let the front end, suspension and bodywork break and fly off so the survival cell can stay intact. A rigid car would pass the impact straight to the driver's body, while a car that crushes gradually extends the time from impact to stop. The No. 91 Ferrari 296 GT3 at Shanghai did that: its bodywork, suspension and wheels were largely torn away, while the survival cell and roll structure held and did not press inward. While waiting for surgery, Millroy wrote: 'Thank Ferrari for building a car that could withstand this kind of impact.'

The clearest demonstration came at the 2020 Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix. Romain Grosjean's Haas lost control on the first lap after contact, hit a three-layer metal barrier at 192 km/h and a 29-degree angle, with a peak acceleration of 67G. The rear power unit separated from the carbon-fibre survival cell, and the front crash structure crushed like an accordion. The six-point harness pinned his torso to the seat, but his head was not tied down.

Without a head and neck support, the head and helmet continue forward under inertia, putting the deceleration force on the neck. If the force exceeds the neck's limit, the base of the skull can be torn, a basilar skull fracture that was almost always fatal. In 1994 at Imola, Roland Ratzenberger died at 314 km/h from that injury a day before Ayrton Senna's fatal crash. The solution had been developed nine years earlier.

In 1981, American driver Jim Downing's teammate Patrick Jacquemart died in testing from the same injury. Downing asked his relative Robert Hubbard, a biomechanics professor at Michigan State University, to help develop a head and neck support. They built the first HANS prototype in 1985. The device uses a U-shaped carbon shoulder yoke under the belts and two tethers from the yoke to the helmet. In a crash, the tethers go taut and transfer force through the shoulders and torso. After sales began in 1991, only 250 units were sold in a decade, Downing later told the Associated Press. HANS was taken seriously only after Senna and Ratzenberger died, and F1 made it mandatory in 2003.

The Halo followed a similar path. In 2018, the FIA required a five-grade titanium, three-pronged device above the cockpit in Formula One. Fans called it a flip-flop. The open-wheel cockpit had been exposed for decades, and the 7 kg titanium frame drew opposition. Grosjean, then a director of the drivers' association, called the day of its introduction 'a sad day for F1.' Kevin Magnussen said, 'If it looks like garbage, it is garbage.' Three-time champion Niki Lauda said Halo destroyed Formula One's DNA. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said at the 2018 car launch, 'If I could, I would take a chainsaw and cut it off.' Nine of 10 teams reportedly voted against it, but the FIA added it to the 2018 technical rules.

It went on to save drivers three times. In August 2018 at Spa, a first-lap collision sent Fernando Alonso's McLaren over the top of Charles Leclerc's Sauber. Leclerc's Halo carried a black tyre mark, and the FIA estimated a peak load of about 58 kN, roughly equivalent to 6 tonnes. Leclerc said afterward, 'I was never a Halo fan, but today I am really happy to see it above my head.' In 2020 at Bahrain, Halo saved Grosjean, one of its opponents. The titanium frame pushed away the upper steel barrier and gave his head space. He unbuckled his harness and jumped out of the fire 27 seconds after the crash. From his hospital bed, he said, 'A few years ago I opposed Halo, but now I think it is the greatest thing we have brought to F1. Without it, I would not be here talking to you today.'

In 2022 at Silverstone, Zhou Guanyu's car was flipped at the start and slid upside down. The roll hoop, designed to hold the car up in a rollover, dug into the asphalt and was sheared off. The Halo acted as a second line of defence, keeping a few centimetres between the helmet and the ground as the car slid across gravel and tyre barriers. Zhou was taken to the medical centre and walked out. The FIA soon required that from 2023 the top of the roll hoop be rounded and raised load-test standards.

The fourth layer is the track response. Even the best hardware only buys seconds. A rival's decision at Shanghai freed Millroy in 59 seconds, but the official medical response took minutes. Daniel Wu, who competed in the GTS class at the same event, posted a video criticizing the series for speaking only 36 hours after the accident. He said, 'This is too shameful... that whole system completely failed.' FIST Team AAI, which ran the No. 91 car, TBC by 610Racing and several other teams subsequently withdrew from China GT.

The contrast goes back 50 years. In August 1976, at the 22.8 km Nürburgring Nordschleife, full fire coverage was impossible. Defending champion Niki Lauda's Ferrari hit the wall and bounced back onto the track in flames, and he was trapped in near-800°C fire. Four rivals who stopped, Guy Edwards, Arturo Merzario, Brett Lunger and Harald Ertl, pulled him out.