Romain Grosjean returns to F1 after walking through fire

The last time Romain Grosjean was in the cockpit of a Formula 1 car, the unthinkable happened.

And it nearly cost him everything.

The scene was the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix, the 15th round of the 2020 F1 season. With the global pandemic shuffling the schedule that season, the race was the first of two back-to-back F1 races to take place at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Grosjean was in his ninth F1 season, and his fifth with the fledgling Haas F1 Team. As that race week began, Grosjean had just two points on the season, which was well into its second half, thanks to a ninth-place finish at the Eifel Grand Prix, a race added at the historic Nürburgring in Germany as the sport reconfigured its schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Grosjean and teammate Kevin Magnussen endured a difficult qualifying session, with both Haas drivers eliminated in Q1. Magnussen started 18th while Grosjean was one spot behind him, lining up P19 on the back row of the grid.

On the opening lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Grosjean was caught in traffic at the back of the pack. When Lance Stroll slid off the racing line at the exit of Turn 3 and into the gravel in front of him, Grosjean swerved his VF-20 to the right, clipping the AlphaTauri driven by Daniil Kvyat.

That contact turned Grosjean into a passenger inside the VF-20, which veered into the barrier at high speed. The collision with the barrier was measured at 67 g, and the impact ripped the car in two.

The VF-20 ignited immediately upon impact, engulfing Grosjean in flames.

As members of the paddock looked on in horror, emergency personnel trackside sprang into action. Within seconds, workers were extinguishing the flames, and Grosjean was able to exit the VF-20 within 28 seconds, helped away from the wreckage by Alan van der Merwe and Ian Roberts.

He suffered minor burns to his hands and ankles.

In a video shared by the team from the hospital, Grosjean credited the Halo device — a safety feature consisting of a titanium ring that circles the cockpit to protect the driver — with saving his life:

Reflecting on the crash years later, Grosjean admitted that he did not know how “violent” the impact was until he watched the crash on video.

“From my point of view, it was a big accident but I didn’t realise the impact or how violent it was from the outside,” described Grosjean.

“It was only the next day when I asked someone to show me what it looked like that I realised. My wife was actually watching that race with my dad and my kids. They will remember that moment their entire life. They were just spectators waiting to hear something… waiting to see something from Bahrain.

“I had to break the headrest, punching it with my helmet and then I eventually managed to get my helmet through and stand up in the seat,” added the driver. “I realised my left foot was stuck into the chassis and I pulled as hard as I could on my left leg. My shoe stayed in the chassis but my foot came loose so I was free to exit the car.

“It was 120 kilos of fuel plus the battery – both were on fire. Dr. Roberts, Alan from the medical car and one fireman were trying to open a gap in the fire to help me get out. I believe that helped me at least to get a vision of where I had to go and where the exit was.

“The survival cell is there for you in case of a huge impact. I was intact inside the shell. The chassis is still in one piece, the halo is there and apart from the damage and burn it is still as it should be. I guess that saved my life.”

The wreckage of that VF-20 is currently part of the F1 Exhibition, a testament to both the safety advances that saved Grosjean’s life and the “Man on Fire” himself, as the incident was featured heavily on the Netflix docuseries Drive to Survive:

The incident ended his season, and with Haas moving on from both him and Magnussen for the 2021 season, Grosjean was without an F1 ride for the upcoming year. He was scheduled to test with Mercedes at the 2021 French Grand Prix, but COVID-19 struck again, as pandemic-related travel restrictions forced the cancellation of that session.

His F1 days seemed to be finished when he signed with Dale Coyne Racing to compete in the IndyCar Series. Grosjean drove for DCR until this season, when he moved to the new Prema Racing team to serve as a reserve driver.

However, he is now set for one of F1’s great comebacks, in a sport filled with such stories of personal will (see Lauda, Niki).

Haas announced on Thursday that Grosjean will complete a Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) session on Friday at the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello.

According to the team, several of Grosjean’s original Haas crew will participate in the session alongside him. Ayao Komatsu, currently the Haas Team Principal, was Grosjean’s race engineer dating back to their days at Lotus F1 Team, and followed the driver to Haas in 2016 as the new Haas Chief Race Engineer.

Dominic Haines, who was Grosjean’s Race Engineer in 2020, will be on-site as the team’s Heritage Chief Engineer. Ian Staniforth, who was Grosjean’s long-time Race Mechanic, will be at the session in his current role as the team’s Support Chief Mechanic. In addition, “several additional team members on the operational and garage side” will also be alongside Grosjean during the session.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to be welcoming Romain Grosjean back into a Formula 1 car for the first time in five years but especially proud he’s returning in one of our cars – it’s only fitting,” said Komatsu in the announcement. “Romain and I have worked together throughout his entire Formula 1 career so this test at Mugello is of particular significance to us both. I’m delighted he embraced the opportunity to come and get back behind the wheel with us, a day that’s going to be made extra special by having so many members of the original crew back together to witness it.

“It should be a fun day and knowing Romain as I do, I know he’ll want to give it his all as usual – I’d expect nothing less, not least as we’ve talked about making this happen for a long time now.”

Grosjean called the upcoming session “truly something special” in the team’s announcement.

“I’m incredibly grateful to Gene Haas and to Ayao Komatsu for inviting me to participate in the TPC at Mugello,” stated Grosjean. “To say I’m excited to get back behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car would naturally be an understatement. I really can’t believe it’s been almost five years, but to come back and have this outing with my old team is truly something special. I’m excited to see everyone, I’m sure we’ll spend a bit of time reminiscing about the old days, but I’m also keen to be of use regarding the trackside agenda with the VF-23 – it’s great the team now has the TPC program as part of its on-going development.”

Grosjean’s return to the track, and his ultimate comeback, will be special for another reason.

He’ll finally get to wear the helmet his children had designed for him to wear when he closed out the 2020 season.

“Finally, my kids had designed my helmet for what was meant to be my final grand prix in Abu Dhabi back in 2020 – I’m at last going to be able to give it a go in a Formula 1 car on Friday,” added Grosjean.

When he does, he’ll complete an incredible personal comeback.