THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MADRID, Spain — It took too long to get McLaren driver Heikki Kovalainen out of his car after his crash at the Spanish Grand Prix, according to a founding member of FIA’s safety division.
Kovalainen was knocked unconscious Sunday after slamming his car into a tire wall while travelling at about 240 km/h at Circuit de Catalunya following what is believed to be a wheel-rim failure.
Dr. Stephen Olvey said Tuesday that Formula One needs to improve its safety measures after describing the amount of time it took to free the 26-year-old Finn as a "problem."
"You don’t have a lot of time and I think this accident will be investigated thoroughly to see if there’s any way to gain access to the driver faster," Olvey told The Associated Press by telephone.
"That is a problem, because if you are unconscious and perhaps not breathing you don’t have more than two or three minutes before you get some kind of significant damage. So, that’s going to have to be looked into."
The FIA said Tuesday that it was investigating the accident.
"It’s too early to comment on the incident other than to confirm that the FIA’s safety experts have already begun a very detailed analysis of accident data," motor sport’s governing body said.
Olvey, who is director of the neuroscience intensive care unit at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, said Kovalainen was lucky to be alive.
"Ten or 12 years ago that could have been a fatal crash," he said. "Track safety is now that there is a lot of science in the tire barriers, and even though the car got buried into the tires, it was still a relatively minor injury considering the velocity and angle of the crash.".
Olvey pointed to modern F1 design for limiting Kovalainen’s injuries. The tires probably only grazed Kovalainen’s helmet rather than catching it, which could have ripped his head back and led to "devastating injuries."
"There’s so much energy absorption that that’s a good thing. The bad thing is that the car is under a massive load of tires and it does take some time to get the car and the driver out — you can’t just pull them out," said Olvey, who first worked as a track physician at Indianapolis in 1966 and who has been involved in the sport for 25 years.
Kovalainen, who was conscious after being pulled out of the car, was discharged from a Barcelona hospital on Monday with minor injuries, including a concussion. He is hoping to pass FIA medical checks and race at the Turkish GP on May 11.
"The key is that he was awake by the time he got to the hospital and that they discharged him the next day. It’s not inconceivable that he could make the next race," Olvey said.