SURVIVING THE SPEED

Formula One has evolved. Once among the deadliest pursuits in sport, it is now one of the safest-and most spectacular-displays of engineering brilliance and human resilience.

- Words: Weixian Low

Most devoted Formula One fans experience the thrill of the race from the comfort of home. With sweeping camera angles capturing every overtaking manoeuvre and hyper-slow-motion replays dissecting every dramatic moment, the sport’s inherent danger can, at times, feel almost abstract. We marvel at the precision, the strategy, the sheer speed—but in truth, we will never fully grasp what it means to sit inside the cockpit.

Consider, for instance, the cockpit of Romain Grosjean on the night of 29 November 2020 at the Bahrain Grand Prix. One moment, he is accelerating down the straight at nearly 200km/h. The next, contact with another car sends him spearing off course into the barriers. Everything blurs—a deafening crunch as the car splits in two, followed by an eruption of flame that engulfs the cockpit in a hellish storm of heat and smoke. In an instant, the world narrows to a haze of orange and black.