Heart attack reflexes and 140 thousandths to avoid a serious accident in F1: “It was terrifying”

A F1 driver, top level athleteyou mustexcel in multiple physical and mental aspects to withstand the demands of F1s, performing at their best during races of almost two hours, traveling at more than 300 km/h. Among them, there is one aspect that is essential: the reflections. They say that with age it is one of the first things that gets worse, but Nico Hulkenbergveteran pilot 39 yearstook it upon himself to prove the opposite.

In Zandvoort, the German pilot Audi He was about to be involved in one of the most dangerous accidents that can occur in F1, those in which a driver accelerating at full speed on a straight line crashes into a stationary car. Impacting the barriers is not a problem, due to the hardness and safety of current cars and how much the protections are capable of absorbing the impact.

But when the accident occurs between a car that is accelerating and another that is stopped in the middle of the track, the impact between two such hard cars is really very, very dangerous.

And luckily, last Sunday, Nico was able to prevent that from happening by exhibiting superhuman reflexes, and above all, a perfect reading of the situation due to his experience in F1.

Nico was starting to accelerate hard in the final corner, before the finish line. There, he witnessed his Audi teammate’s spin right in front of him, Gabriel Bortoleto.

However, That spin caused a cloud of smoke that hid Bortoleto’s car in it. Nico had to decide whether to go left or right, blindly, to avoid the impact. And as F1 shows in a recent ‘tweet’, since the German driver stopped seeing Bortoleto’s car, made the decision in 0″170 seconds, or what is the same, 170 thousandths.

Because the last corner is banked, Bortoleto’s car had to be steered to the right by pure physics. And Nico went to the left, but not because he had time to think about it, but rather the pilot himself assured that it was pure luck.

He was thus able to avoid the impact at a very difficult moment, since he could not brake suddenly because other cars were accelerating from behind.

Hülkenberg’s explanation

“It was terrifying, very delicate”expressed Nico Hülkenberg before the written press after the race.

“The whole track was very dry, but that corner was still much wetter and caught several drivers by surprise. It was very complicated and I didn’t know where he was going to go, if he was going to go up or down the bank. I was waiting, doubting until the last moment. There was a good dose of luck not to crash there, but we were too close. I watched it happen almost in slow motion at that speed. A sheet of paper would have fit between us, but not much more,” he noted, highlighting how close he was to his partner Gabriel’s car.

After that, Hülkenberg finished in the points, in eighth position, adding four points that are worth gold for the German.