A modern formula 1 car's tub is made entirely of carbon fiber.Watch a race where a f1 car has hit a solid retaining wall at high speed and see how well the tub absorbs the impact without breaking and the driver walking away with the only injury concussion.
How can any structure absorb energy if it does not significantly deform?
If they need to
ultrasonic test the tub for hidden damage such as delamination etc.
after an accident well then it was not the carbon fiber structure that absorbed the energy of the crash, it must have been the soft bits of car around it that did.
If you put a raw egg in a tin can and drop it onto the road, the can is hardly going to deform at all, meaning that it absorbs very little. It will simply transfer that sudden deceleration to the poor little egg inside.