F1: Romain Grosjean relives the race that changed his life

Four years on from a Formula One crash in Bahrain that ripped his car in half and nearly killed the Frenchman in the fireball that followed, the former Haas driver can recall every second.

FILE PHOTO: Romain Grosjean of France and Haas F1 walks in the Pitlane during qualifying for the Formula One Grand Prix of Mexico. | Photo Credit: AFP

Romain Grosjean has no doubt his children saved his life.

Four years on from a Formula One crash in Bahrain that ripped his car in half and nearly killed the Frenchman in the fireball that followed, the former Haas driver can recall every second.

He has a ‘tattoo’, the flame-scarred left hand that still gives him some pain in cold weather, as a daily reminder of how lucky he is to be alive.

“Whenever things don’t go my way, I look at it and I say ‘well, you know, it could have been worse. It could be that I’m not here’,” the 38-year-old told Reuters in an interview from his home in Miami.

“I guess that for sure changed my life -- (I’m) trying to enjoy it a bit more than before and realising that it can slip away very quickly.”

Grosjean, a father of three, said there was a point where he almost lost hope because he was stuck in the cockpit and his hands were burning.

“But then thinking about the kids, I realised they cannot grow without (their) Dad. That’s where I find the extra strength to go again and break the headrest that I believe was keeping me stuck in the car,” he said.

“I think very methodologically trying to escape was what I was doing. Like you do a mathematics problem, you take the first part, the second part and the third part.

“At one point I thought that was just it. And then thinking about the kids, I was like ‘Well, no, it cannot be’.”

The 2020 accident at Bahrain’s Sakhir circuit ended Grosjean’s Formula One career but he hopes to extend his time in IndyCar and is not ready to retire.

“What I know, and that is a view I had even before my accident and even probably that reinforced it, is that life is worth living,” he said.

“I’m not going to stop doing things because they could potentially be dangerous because then what’s the point of living?”

F1 EXHIBITION

For the Netflix generation, drawn to F1 through ‘Drive to Survive’, Grosjean is the man who walked through fire rather than a driver who took 10 podiums and received a one-race ban in 2012 for a first corner pile-up while with Lotus.

The burnt-out survival cell of his Haas car is now on display, a remarkable tribute to the sport’s safety measures as well as a stark reminder of the dangers, in a Formula One exhibition at London’s ExCel Centre until March 2.

The halo head protection device, that Grosjean had previously opposed, was ultimately critical to his survival.

“I don’t think I want to go and see it, but I think it’s important to show people that Formula One... is also a job that puts a life on the line,” said Grosjean of the charred carbon fibre wreck.

“Now when there’s an accident, I always ask more like, is everyone okay? I’m a bit more worried than I was before, more worried than I was before for my competitors because I know what it’s like to be in a big one.”

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff offered Grosjean, who missed the final two races of the 2020 season, a farewell test but that has yet to happen due to COVID and the Frenchman’s busy schedule.

“He (Wolff) reminds me all the time. He says ‘we need to make it happen’. And I say ‘yeah, Toto, it’s on me... I’ve been very, very busy and not the time to do it’.

“They haven’t forgotten. They haven’t given up. And that’s very nice to see.”