Anthony Davidson believes that the seat of his Toyota TS030 potentially saved him from paralysis in his massive Le Mans crash last weekend.
The former grand prix driver was launched into the air after being clipped by Piergiuseppe Perazzini's Ferrari and suffered two broken vertebrae, but fears that his injuries could have been much worse without the energy absorbing foam material incorporated into the seat.
"Everything inside the car did it's job – the head shrouding, the foam and the seat did its job brilliantly," he told Sky Sports F1 in an interview broadcast in the build-up to qualifying for the European Grand Prix. "It held me, supported me and arguably was the thing that saved me from further compression and maybe the worst-case scenario of being paralyzed now instead. When you look at everything involved, I think I got away with it the lightest I was ever going to."
Davidson added that he is happy still to be alive after such a big accident. He confirmed that he has watched replays of the crash and believes that he was lucky to escape.
"I'm just glad to still be here after what happened," he said. "When you see the images, and I have looked at them, you just think, now and when I was in the car, 'How am I going to get away with this one?'"