My Formula 1 System
Chapter 440 - 440: Ashfall

It had been more than a decade—eleven years precisely—since Formula 1, or any of its feeder series, lost a driver's life on track. Before this clean streak that spanned over a decade, the longest prior stretch without fatality was six years. And there was even once a haunting time when two consecutive seasons claimed two consecutive lives, both coincidentally during the Singapore Grand Prix.

The last death, as we all know, was Ladislas Duval, eleven years ago at the Canadian Grand Prix. We also know that the then-famed Île Notre-Dame Circuit was renamed in his honour—a tragic, bittersweet gesture that sealed the memory in finality.

After Duval's crash at the chicane that swept over St. Lawrence—disturbingly snapping his spine in the aftermath of a brutal somersault—everyone believed that nothing of that nature would ever occur again.

That violent, airborne disassembly of carbon fibre, coupled with only a small flicker of fire, served as a wake-up call the FIA could no longer pacify with polished statements or race-neutral condolences. And so, in the weeks that followed, drastic new regulations were swiftly drafted, the most aggressive since the Aldo Rennick era and his rivals' maddening spree of rampant crashes.

Advanced Halo Reinforcement was one of those direct responses, because Duval's Halo had failed, even after a wheellock. Now, imagine if he had rammed into a concrete wall or barricade and the Halo had chosen that moment to reveal its poor reinforcement.

There were now different types of Halos, and many teams—in fact, all teams on the F1 grid—opted for the Skeleton type, because it had a stronger lattice embedded beneath the curved bone-like structure.

Another regulation the FIA encouraged manufacturers to implement into their cars was the DTSS Protocol, short for Debris-Triggered Shutdown System. Integrating this came at a heavy cost, but many teams understood its importance, so they funded its development and merged it into their engineering. On that day, Ansel's car was equipped with DTSS. The only problem was the poorly fixed coolant hose, which gave way and allowed pressurized gas to leak.

DTSS was a protocol designed to instantly shut down all electrical and fuel systems the moment a sensor detected an impact above thirty Gs or confirmed a violent rollover.

The disadvantage of this protocol, however, was that the more damaged the car was, the less effective DTSS became. If the system itself was compromised in the crash, then what becomes of it?

These two regulations—the Halo reinforcement and DTSS—were ones both team and driver were expected to implement, and they were adhered to. However, the third lay in the hands of the FIA itself: the officials, marshals, and race regulators.

Every driver needed to be cleared away from a crash, no matter how severe it was, not just to resume the race smoothly and give marshals the space to work, but also to keep the driver safe and prevent further harm.

The Emergency Egress Mandate addressed this very situation, the overall process of a crashed driver being removed from the crash site. The standard stated that a driver must be able to get out of the car unaided within 5 to 15 seconds. All F1 drivers were trained for that, especially in simple crashes.

But in severe crashes like being unconscious, trapped, or the car being inverted, no matter the angle or level of wreckage, the standard also required that marshals had the responsibility to extract the driver within 20 to 60 seconds. Duval's final moments happened within 28 seconds from the moment of impact. The marshals arrived at second 13, and managed to pull out an already cold body by second 41.

Public statements announced that Luca Rennick had reached Ansel Hahn within 15 seconds after the moment of the crash and the ignition of fire. He struggled with him for 20 more seconds, during which the marshals arrived with extinguishers. But both drivers, extremely focused on themselves and caught in the chaos, failed to realize that help had finally arrived.

Seven marshals involved in the extinguishing effort suffered minor burns. However, Rennick sustained major burns, while Hahn, tragically, lost his life in what autopsy reports officially classified as an unfortunate death that left him completely unrecognizable.

So, regardless of how many acclimations, alterations, or regulations are imposed, as long as the true nature of the sport remains unchanged, severe crashes will likely still occur. If it took the hand of the devil to strike after eleven years of silence, then when next? Another twenty-five years? The FIA cannot change the core aspects of the sport—which, in truth, is the root cause—because if they do, Formula 1 loses its essence, and the passion slowly dwindles away.

In calamitous crises like this, it was normal for every individual and every party within the motorsport community to point fingers elsewhere. Blame was handed out like gifts, because no one—and no group—wanted to be deemed truly responsible for the German's demise in Spain. So, even in this time of grief and tribute, subtle censures and veiled abjurations crackled around the corners.

The FIA subtly blamed Trampos, and Trampos returned the favour by calling out the incompetence of the marshals at the Spanish Grand Prix, accusing them of failing to arrive on time. They also blamed Rodnick—Jackson's own driver—stating that his aggressive driving had been reported to Race Control three times prior to the collision with Ansel, but no penalties had ever been issued.

And once again, Twitt became a battlefield of chaos.

****

Germany had never known silence so heavy. This was a country known for noise, filled with people of iron hearts—resilient and passionate. But now, all had bowed their heads, for tragedy had clipped every soul.

Like a creeping morning fog, mourning curled through the streets and roads, over lakes and hills, from city to city and from village to village.

Ansel's loss was a national heartbreak, one that left the country disoriented in the first few days after the incident, while Luca still lay on a hospital bed, undergoing treatment.

After the initial shock came mourning, and following that, tributes. Ansel was German through and through by nationality, so the entire governmental framework took this personally and seriously. They initiated an indefinite elegy that would hum across the country in remembrance of "the driver who perished in the arms of fire," while also extending national gratitude to Luca, "the driver who reached into hell."

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