The image at the top of the article is terrible, with him flailing out of the burning car, hope he pulls through but it sounds very touch and go at the moment.
when first saw that photo i thought its was an 'action' shot immediately after impact, but then i saw the empty fire extingisher on the tarmac next to the car.. so it may appear this was taken a good while after car had come to rest? scary. ***EDIT, after looking again it would appear that the fire extinguisher on the tarmac in the photo is from the car as the accident is still going on...
Massive impact.
A very bad accident.
It looks like he managed to hit the pit wall just where there is an opening which has made the accident much more horrific than it should have been and sadly a few metres after a tyre wall finishes. In fact it appears that the car pushed through the flimsy metal barrier on impact and pretty much straight into the corner/end of the solid concrete low level platform behind it.
Alot of safety gear on circuits apppears to be used assuming people crash entering or through a corner only. Many circuits are poor where people crash in unusual places, although on the exit of a corner isnt 'unexpected'.
The walls around pit entries and exits and pit straights have been a concern of mine for some time. When you view some of the circuits during racing there are some potentiallly horrific accidents waiting to happen if someone loses control entering the pit or simply losing control in a similair fashion to this while passing pit entries. Many have the end of the pit wall strutting out with nothing more than a handful of tyres.
Although i appreciate this is not the pit entry in this case.
Even in F1 which generally is a stickler for rules drivers openly cut in late across solid lines and race right to the pit area. Perhaps its time to enforce rules than mean you cannot cut in late or race so far into these areas.
Its also common for there to be no protection along the pit wall. Tricky.
Regards the response to the fire, while it wasnt good and clearly the equipment isnt up to the job, i suspect the response was no worse than you would see as most circuits.
(however due to film being edited its not clear how long it took for first marshalls to reach the crash).
Mind you on the other hand alot of the extinguishers were passed from the pits... so there is probably more fire extinguishers there than if it had happened elsewhere.
I hope he has a miracle of a recovery.