Hartog pulls Millroy from burning Ferrari at Shanghai

Ollie Millroy was trapped in a burning Ferrari at Shanghai on Saturday, and the first person to reach him was not a marshal. It was Loek Hartog, a Dutch driver who was racing against him, and who stopped his Porsche mid-race, climbed out and got him free.

Millroy is alive, in hospital with five broken ribs, a broken collarbone, a broken hand and finger and a bruised lung. He was unconscious for around an hour. He has since written that he owes his life to one man.

Three cars, one fire, and no marshals in sight

The crash happened in the opening China GT race at the Shanghai International Circuit, the venue that hosts the Chinese Grand Prix. Neil Verhagen’s 610 Racing BMW M4 GT3 and David Chen’s Harmony Racing Ferrari made contact on the grass at Turn 14. Both cars slid on, and Chen’s Ferrari struck the side of Millroy’s FIST Team AAI Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, which immediately caught fire. The race was red flagged.

Onboard footage from Hartog’s Phantom Global Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R shows what happened next. He stopped, got out and went to the car. He tried to reach the cockpit from one side, moved to the other, and was filmed searching for a fire extinguisher because there were no marshals at the scene. He fought the flames back far enough to get to Millroy and pulled him out.

A minute and a half in the car before help arrived

Millroy’s AAI team mate Yin Yu Chen said Millroy was in the car for about a minute and a half with no fire or rescue assistance. Track safety personnel are reported to have arrived well over a minute after the impact. On a circuit that stages a round of the Formula 1 world championship, the first responder to a car on fire was another competitor.

That is the part the organisers will have to answer for, and it is separate from what Hartog did. A driver getting to a burning car first is a story about one person’s courage. A driver getting there first because nobody else had is a story about a safety operation.

Millroy: “I am still alive tonight, entirely thanks to one man”

Millroy wrote on social media: “I am still alive tonight, entirely thanks to one man. Loek Hartog stopped instantly, with no flag marshals or fire crews in sight, and risked his own life to get me out of the car.”

On his own condition he wrote that he has “a couple of operations coming up tomorrow to put everything back in place”, followed by several weeks of recovery in China before he is able to fly home.

Hartog: “There wasn’t really a decision to be made”

Hartog’s account is striking for how little deliberation it contains. “When I saw a car engulfed in a huge ball of fire in front of me, there wasn’t really a decision to be made,” he said. “From what I could see, I naturally assumed the driver couldn’t get out on his own, so I stopped, got out and went over to the car. I never had any doubts.”

He was not casual about the risk. “It was terrifying, and there were moments when I didn’t know if I’d ever manage to get Ollie out,” he added.

Hartog is better known in Europe for his Porsche campaigns, including racing for Rutronik Racing in GT World Challenge Europe. He gave up his own race, and any result that went with it, in the time it took to unclip his belts.

The broadcast said the drivers got out by themselves

What followed did not match what the onboard footage shows. According to Millroy’s team, the organisers said the drivers had left their cars on their own. The video makes clear that Millroy did not.

That matters beyond hurt feelings. If the official account of an incident is that a driver climbed out unaided, there is no incident to review, no response time to examine and no reason to change anything before the next race.

Our view: the rescue was the exception, not the system

Motorsport has spent decades building out the machinery that makes a fire survivable. Fireproof overalls, extinguisher systems, marshals within seconds, medical cars on the opening lap. All of it exists because drivers used to die in cars that other drivers could not reach in time.

What happened at Shanghai is that the machinery was not there, and a competitor filled the gap with nothing but his own nerve. That should be recognised for what it is, and Hartog deserves every bit of it. It should also not be filed as a feel good story and left there. The question for the China GT organisers is not whether Hartog was brave. It is why a driver needed to be.

Millroy is expected to spend several weeks recovering in China before he can travel. Hartog went back to work.