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The wall is not remotely 45 degrees angle to the track. Grosjean's angle of impact was somewhere near 45 degrees due to the contact with Kvyat, but track barriers are always designed with a certain set of possible car trajectories in mind; the direction the Haas went almost certainly wasn't one of them, and I don't think a car has ever gone off there at that angle. Tracks need angled walls to allow for marshal entry and exit, and the angle is maybe 10 degrees into the track vs a standard straight closed barrier. I doubt the angle had much to do with the severity of the wreck.

The use of armco is something that needs serious investigation though, I can't imagine how any open cockpit series let alone what's supposed to be the very pinnacle would approve a track for use with Armco anywhere, even the unlikely bits. It's excusable for a saloon or closed cockpit series, but there have been enough examples across the last 50 years of what happens to an open cockpit car in a head-on collision with a guardrail to not keep repeating it.

We're talking a lot about the FIA and track safety, but what about driver behaviour ?

People spent the race chopping each other on the straights an din braking zones. I thought they'd be more cautious our of respect for human life after seeing one of theirs almost die burned alive, yet nothing's changed.

And don't give me the "drivers be drivers" talk. There is hard racing, and dangerous racing. There used to be one or two lunatics that did this in the entire field (Senna, Schumacher) and they were confronted for it by others. Nowadays, fair racers who keep their line are the exception. There won't be any barrier or track design against airplane crashes caused by chopping contacts at 350

I did not think that, because I thought I saw that the fire was behind the armco, so I wrongly assumed sparks and maybe fuel from the impact lit some object behind the barriers on fire.
I did not think the object burning largely behind the barrier was in fact the cockpit. If I'd have known that, I would have been damn sure he's dead already.

We're talking a lot about the FIA and track safety, but what about driver behaviour ?

People spent the race chopping each other on the straights an din braking zones. I thought they'd be more cautious our of respect for human life after seeing one of theirs almost die burned alive, yet nothing's changed.

And don't give me the "drivers be drivers" talk. There is hard racing, and dangerous racing. There used to be one or two lunatics that did this in the entire field (Senna, Schumacher) and they were confronted for it by others. Nowadays, fair racers who keep their line are the exception. There won't be any barrier or track design against airplane crashes caused by chopping contacts at 350

I'm with you. I didn't have an oh he's dead thought. I thought that that the fuel cell was ruptured but the car took a hit from the back and that he would jump out quick smart, and that it wasn't at a huge racing speed. Of course once I saw what actually happened I had the how in Hell's name is he alive thought. But live, no I didn't think so. I probably should have though.

Kubica in Canada was the one I was watching live and though, damn he's dead. Alonso in Melbourne I thought he would be seriously injured. When the reality is THIS one was the one that had the higher likely hood of death.

I've read Ricciardo is very upset with the fact so many replays were shown.

I tend to agree with him, those images were really shocking even though he wasn't fatally injured.

But hey, drama sells.

You think that's bad - NASCAR is using the Newman wreck as promotion

This was a self inflicted crash and a long long time in the making, not just from Grosjean's side but also Stroll's. Stroll, off track with a damaged car, cut right across the track to basically take his natural line in front of the pack causing them to check up, instead of easing back onto it. Grosjean did the rest.

The severity of the end result was shocking, but not the crash itself for me. But guess what....no one will see any reprimand or punishment for it. When there should be.

Agreed on the driving standards. The way the field was bunched together through the first few corners with drivers tripping over themselves didn't feel right. There were cars going off the track on both sides, Stroll rejoined in the middle of traffic, and there were one or two cars carrying damage as well. Everything concertinaed up and it felt like something was going to happen. I don't know what can or should be done about this, because technically no one did anything "illegal", but I guess it was inevitable that a lot of very fast F1 cars driven by aggressive young drivers through a narrow, twisty piece of track was eventually going to end up this way

One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is track design, by which I mean tarmac run off allowing drivers to floor it while completely off the track. Having cars speeding through the run off on both sides of the track definitely added to the chaos. I don't know if gravel traps would have made any difference, but we're seeing this kind of thing often enough now for it to be worth looking into, I think.

There is a patch of gravel to the left of the track on that section, where Raikkonen went through.

Looking at the replay again from the trackside camera, he first tried to get out from the top of the Halo as usual, felt blocked by the barrier, then went for the gap on the side of the Halo! Which was the only clear way out.

Very good job by design to have made that lateral gap large enough to fit a driver. This makes the Indy canopy a bit concerning. He'd have not had a way out if the canopy was stuck exactly the same way.