Vettel's pointed question over horrific F1 'fail'

The halo may have saved Romain Grosjean's life but Formula One still has big questions to answer after his horrific Bahrain GP crash, four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel says.

Grosjean escaped with only minor burns when his car was torn in half by a barrier and exploded in flames on Sunday.

The halo, F1's 2018 safety addition that wraps around the driver cockpit, prevented a tragedy, as did quick reactions from Grosjean, track marshals and medical staff.

Yet Vettel questioned how Grosjean's Haas car had speared through the safety barrier and then burst into a fireball.

"I haven't looked at the images a lot because I didn't really want to but the main thing is he got out. I don't know how, to be honest," said Vettel, who with Grosjean is a Grand Prix Drivers' Association director.

"But obviously the guardrail is not supposed to fail like that. I mean, it's good the cars are safer than they used to be in the past but the guardrail shouldn't fail and the car shouldn't catch fire in that fashion.

"There are a lot of precautions so that it doesn't fail, so I don't know what happened there. I think it's difficult to say at this stage but the main thing is obviously that he got out."

McLaren driver Carlos Sainz echoed Vettel's queries.

"I never expected honestly a Formula One car and an armco to generate that kind of crash," Sainz said.

"It's definitely something we need to look into as general safety, without pointing fingers at all.

"It's another day where we need to learn as a sport, same as we have to learn from days like Mugello and the days of Anthoine for example.

"There's always an opportunity to feel lucky that nothing major happened today and always an opportunity to learn and keep making this sport as safe as possible."

Sainz was involved in a pile-up at Mugello, caused by a botched restart, while Anthoine Hubert was killed in the 2019 F2 Belgium race.

It isn't only the crash that is bringing scrutiny to F1 but the immediate response in the race broadcast.

Australian Renault driver Daniel Ricciardo was furious that the Grosjean crash was played repeatedly on television.

"I want to express my disgust and disappointment with Formula One," Ricciardo said.

"For me, it was entertainment and they're playing with all of our emotions and I thought it was pretty disgusting."

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