How data from Carlos Sainz' 42g accident in Sochi will help Formula 1 drivers in future

The FIA Institute is pushing ahead with expanding understanding of what happens in high speed accidents as it builds up its Accident Database, acce...

The FIA Institute is pushing ahead with expanding understanding of what happens in high speed accidents as it builds up its Accident Database, accessible to all motor sport series around the world. It is part of a fresh push to improve safety in the sport.

The information collected by Carlos Sainz’s ear accelerometer and other data gathering devices, like the Accident Data Recorder (ADR), measured the Spaniard’s enormous accident in Sochi at 42g and will be used as part of the FIA’s World Accident Database research, which records every serious accident to try and reduced the risk of injury to drivers in future incidents.

The sensors are carried in the earpieces of each F1 driver and have been used since the 2014 season, but the new research is aiming to add measurements such as heart-rate, pulse, temperature and even sweat analysis, according to a report in the FIA’s AUTO magazine.

All of the data collected by the ear accelerometers is useful to medical personal immediately after a crash as they automatically detect any movement in the driver’s head during an impact.

In 2016 all F1 cars will carry a high speed camera, pointing at the driver's head, which will record at a high frame rate, what happens in an impact, to give the FIA team a better understanding of what can be done to better protect the driver.

Luc Argand, the chairman of the Global Institute for Motor Sport Safety, the research partner of the FIA Institute, explained that the new element of the ear accelerometer project was part of a wider push to develop safety technology across all levels of motor sport.

He said: “At the Global Institute we have the duty and the responsibility to further this progress and to cascade down the research to all levels of the sport. I think the Formula One programme is likely to be just the start.”

Andy Mellor, a consultant to the FIA Institute, explained how the ear accelerometers work together with ADRs and assist with the decision making process of medics treating an injured driver.

He said: “There is so much we can learn from a crash if we have the right information. For the last few years we’ve relied on ADRs and these have given us hugely important information after a crash.

“However, they only tell you about the forces acting on the car. So the possibility of tracking the motion of the drivers themselves is a major breakthrough. The information from the accelerometer could give a precise kinematic of the head and the timing of the head movement during an accident.”

The research involved in the original ear accelerometer project adapted off-the-shelf, low-g sensors that are typically found in smartphones, to measure the forces of up to 400g that can occur in a head impact in F1, as well as miniaturising the technology to fit into the ear canal.