To give some context of this incident:<p>1) A crash with fire and flames has not been seen in F1 in over two decades because of all the safety upgrades and regulations (like no refueling mid-race). Modern F1 cars were presumed by most to withstand such massive impacts without going up in flames.<p>2) The "Halo" [1] (the titanium ring around the front) which saved the driver's life was only recently introduced in 2016 and was a controversial move with many in the F1 community (including teams and drivers) disapproving of the addition of it. The complaints were mainly about the looks and that the halo infringes upon the basic essence of what an open-cockpit racing car is.<p>---<p>To be honest, watching that accident live, it looked almost impossible that the driver would survive it. It is truly a testament to the engineering and the safety standards that the modern F1 community has pushed for.<p>Also an interesting trivia I just learned:
The driver of the medical car (among the first people on the scene of the accident, and the second person to deploy a fire extinguisher), Alan van der Merwe, participates on HN (avdmerwe).<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_(safety_device)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_(safety_device)</a>