07/07/2022
NEWS STORY
Recalling the moments following his heart-stopping crash at Silverstone, Guanyu Zhou reveals that lying in his car upside down, he felt something leaking, the Chinese driver unaware if it was blood or fuel.
The Alfa Romeo driver, talking directly to the media for the first time since his horrific accident, has given insight into those moments.
"Obviously, when the flip happened the first thing I was trying to do was trying to release my hand off the steering wheel, because you never know, you can break your wrist very easily with a crash like that.
"The next thing I tried to do, while I was just rolling on the ground, I knew I'd be facing a massive impact coming up, because the car wasn't stopping, and so I tried to lock myself in a position that is the safest possible, just waiting for that last impact. It's not like I was just holding the hand backwards, but keeping it reasonably in tension, so it doesn't get flying around when you have that last impact.
"Basically, I was just waiting for the last stop hit, and once I was basically stopped, I didn't know where I was, because I was upside down," he explained, his car caught between the Tec-Pro barrier and catch fencing.
"And the next thing I felt was some leaking," he continued. "I was not sure if it was from my body or from the car, so I just tried to switch the engine off because the engine was still on at that point.
"I knew if a fire started it would be difficult to get out, so I switched my engine off and then everything was fine."
"I didn't know what happened, who hit me," he said of the actual crash, "because I was going straight next to the white line before Turn 1, and then suddenly there was a massive shunt.
"He was obviously making a conversation with me," he added, referring to one of the marshals trying to extract him from his car. "He was making sure I was conscious and everything was OK, remembering what happened. So I remembered everything, and I felt okay.
"I had to kind of slide myself a little bit out. So at least to have my leg, my feet already kind of out and on the top of the seat. And they were able to pull me out.
"I didn't realise I was between the barriers. I was thinking I was next to the barriers. But I was actually between the barrier and the fence, which I don't know how I survived. But then looking back then obviously I saw the Halo saved me for that."
Determined to be back in action this weekend, Zhou revealed: "Already on Sunday I watched the race back, I didn't feel sick watching it or have that feeling.
"I feel like I was able to digest a bit myself so I was happy mentally, just having one day off, and then went back into checking my physical condition.
"For me it wasn't a concern," he added. "Obviously there are times you do something and you need a bit of mental help but this time I didn't feel it was needed.
"Sunday night I was texting all my engineers asking, is my seat OK? For drivers the seat is very important, it's been very comfortable so far but it can be different even if they try to do the same.
"Apart from that, I'm just happy to have a back-to-back race, because obviously, if you have a summer break just after that, it would be terrible, because you will be under pressure, you'll be thinking about it, repeat the crash again, even though you try to avoid it, you somehow find it somewhere. It's good to be straight back in."