Hartog stopped to save Millroy’s life after the crash
Fifty years after Niki Lauda was famously rescued from his burning Ferrari by fellow drivers, motor sport once again witnessed an act of heroism as Ollie Millroy was pulled from the burning wreckage of another Ferrari by the courageous Loek Hartog.
Millroy credits his on-track rival with saving his life during a China GT race at Shanghai, and the pair are now working together to push for improvements to motor sport safety.
Millroy’s Ferrari 296 GT3 caught fire following a multi-car collision at the Shanghai International Circuit in early September. The British driver was running in the top six when he was struck by David Chen’s Ferrari, which had already collided with Neil Verhagen’s BMW.
Hartog, a 23-year-old Dutch Porsche driver running further down the order, immediately stopped and rushed to Millroy’s assistance, abandoning his own race to help pull him from the burning car.
“The fact that there was zero chance I was getting out of that car alive if it wasn’t for Loek, no driver should ever be in that position,” Millroy tells Marcus Simmons in the December 2026 issue of Motor Sport.
Millroy suffered six broken ribs, a punctured lung, a broken hand, a broken collarbone and a fractured vertebra in his neck, alongside extensive soft-tissue bruising and concussion.
Remarkably, he was back at his home in Dubai within two weeks, although he has no memory of the period from 30 seconds before the accident until an hour afterwards.
He has been keen to avoid making definitive judgements about the response of the organisers and rescue crews while an investigation is ongoing.
However, he believes the incident should serve as a warning to the wider sport.
“I don’t want to say too much at the moment until the investigation’s complete, because I don’t have all the facts myself,” Millroy explained. “But it’s quite clear from the video that something wasn’t right.”
He and Hartog have since developed a close friendship, despite having barely known each other before the accident. The pair now speak daily and share a common objective of improving safety standards and emergency procedures across motor sport.
Clockwise from top left: David Chen’s Ferrari 296 GT3 is out of control after collision with Verhagen; The Ferrari spears across the track, collecting the similar car of Ollie Millroy; Force of the impact caused all of the injuries for Millroy…; …whose stricken Ferrari becomes a fireball – like a scene from the 1970s
Ollie Millroy
In his interview with Motor Sport, Millroy sets out his and Hartog’s goals after what he describes as a “wake-up call for the organisers around the world, the FIA and everyone.”
He also highlighted shortcomings in the communication with his family following the accident, with his wife Fern left uncertain about his condition for two hours.
“She heard on TV that I’d got out of the car on my own, and then she was getting messages from other drivers to say, ‘No that’s not true, Ollie was pulled out of the car’,” he said.
“As soon as something happens there should be a system that kicks into place to make family members aware.”
Clockwise from top: Millroy, left, with Loek Hartog; Millroy on his feet again; Six broken ribs, a broken collarbone, a broken hand and a punctured lung
Ollie Millroy
The 36-year-old hopes to return to racing in January’s Daytona 24 Hours, where he regularly competes in IMSA endurance events alongside American amateur driver Brendan Iribe.
Millroy also competes in China with AAI Motorsports, where he combines driving with coaching bronze-rated team-mate Betty Chen.
Despite the physical and psychological challenges of his recovery, he remains determined to return to the cockpit. However, the accident has inevitably changed his perspective on the risks involved in racing.
“I’ve never said goodbye to Fern and the kids when I go away racing, thinking there’s a chance I might not make it home,” he said.
“I guess you could say that we take it for granted a little bit, and that was a wake-up call for the whole world that, wow, it can suddenly go very, very wrong.”
Read the full story of Ollie Millroy’s remarkable recovery, his relationship with Loek Hartog and his plans for the future in the latest issue of Motor Sport magazine
