Zhou Guanyu admits he does not know how he survived British GP accident
The Chinese rookie was flipped upside down and out of control at 160mph.
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Your support makes all the difference.Zhou Guanyu said he does not know he survived his horrendous opening-corner accident at the British Grand Prix.
The Chinese rookie ended up wedged between a steel barrier and metal catch fencing after he was flipped upside down and out of control at 160mph.
Zhou, 23, has been given the all-clear to take part in this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg – a week after he emerged unscathed from one of the biggest crashes in recent Formula One memory.
“When I was rolling on the ground I knew I’d be facing a massive impact because the car wasn’t stopping,” said Zhou, speaking for the first time since his extraordinary smash at Silverstone.
“I was trying to get myself in a position that was as safe as possible, just waiting for the last impact.
“Once I stopped, I didn’t know where I was because I was upside down and the next thing I felt was leaking. I wasn’t sure if I was my body or the car.
“I was stuck. I had to hold my head because it was leaning against the left-hand side, and I was more worried about if the engine caught on fire.
“I tried to switch the engine off. I knew if the fire started it would be difficult to get out. It did not hurt but the liquid was very cold on my left-hand side. I didn’t know if it was blood or if I had no feeling.
“I don’t think it can get much bigger. Nothing was going through my mind. I don’t know how I survived. Looking back, the Halo obviously saved me.”
Following Sunday’s round at the Red Bull Ring, there are two further races in France and Hungary before the sport’s August shutdown.
“I was quite happy to have a back-to-back race because if we’d have had the summer break after that it would have been terrible,” he said.
“You’d have been repeating the crash again and again, even though you’d be trying to avoid it.”
The Halo – a three-pronged titanium safety device which sits above the driver’s head – became mandatory in 2018 and has been credited with saving as many as four lives.
Lewis Hamilton avoided grave injury when Max Verstappen’s Red Bull sat on top of his Mercedes at last year’s race in Monza.
The seven-time world champion said: “The Halo saved my life last year and several drivers’ lives.
“While we were not initially supportive of it because of how it looked, we were told that it provides a 17 per cent improvement on safety, and you can’t argue with that.
“There are still areas to improve – a car getting stuck behind a barrier, and a driver getting stuck, is something we’ve got to make sure doesn’t happen again.
“But it is a reminder to all those that are watching that it is a dangerous sport. We take real risks out there at crazy speed, and that shouldn’t be taken for granted.”
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