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Friday 4 December 2020
Goosebumps report on F1 drama
Grosjean was ready to die in the fire
By Tobias Nordmann
Despite injuries after the accident in Bahrain, Formula 1 driver Romain Grosjean is still hoping to go to the season finale in Abu Dhabi. He doesn’t want to end his career with these photos. How he experienced the horror collapse, he has now told it emotionally.
Romain Grosjean raised his thumb at the end. And smiled. Perhaps also for the prospect of what will happen in the coming weeks. That is family time. Cycling and kite surfing. This is expected when the Formula 1 season ends after the Abu Dhabi race the following weekend. For the French, the end of the season on 13 December means goodbye to the premier class of motorsport. The 34-year-old’s contract with the small Haas stable has not been extended. “Last week my priority was to sign a contract and compete. That changed a bit,” he said in a video conference on Friday.
Everything changed last weekend. In Sakhir, at the Bahrain Grand Prix, the Frenchman crashed into the guardrail at 221 kilometers per hour after a few seconds of driving, after the third corner, after touching the Alfa Tauri of Russian Daniil Kvyat. His car broke in two and went into a spectacular fireball. It was a scene that left Formula 1 in a state of shock. It was a few seconds. Infinity. Unbearable.
There was intense fear for Romain Grosjean’s life. In words that give you goosebumps, he now describes the moments of hellfire. “It was 28 seconds in the fire, but it felt a lot longer. When I wanted to get out, I hit my head. I sat back and thought: I’m waiting, somehow I rolled over. I’ll wait for someone to help me. All ‘ I didn’t see the fire. I turned left and hit my head again. But then I saw fire everywhere. There was no time to wait. I thought about Niki Lauda. I thought it can’t end like this, not it could have been my last race. Never. I tried again and again, but I got stuck. My foot got stuck. “
The fear of death mingled with the desperate struggle to escape from the cockpit. It was not fear, but rather an inner peace. “Suddenly my body relaxed,” reports the Frenchman. “I was fine with myself and thought I was going to die. I was wondering where it started. Does it burn my hand, foot? Does it hurt? Then I had to think about my children. And I thought: can they be their dad don’t lose today! “Grosjean no longer knows exactly what happens then. At some point he somehow managed to break free with his upper body. “My hands went into the fire. I saw my red gloves. One of them went completely black from the fire. I was relieved that I finally got out of the car, and then I felt someone touch me. That’s when I noticed. I’m a running ball of fire. “
“I never panic”
A marshal put out the fire. Grosjean should lie down on a stretcher. But he didn’t want to. He wanted to run to the medical car. He wanted to send the signal that he was fine. “I never panic. Mathematically, I knew exactly what I had to do. I don’t know if this is innate or if it can be learned and trained. But that saved me,” he relates.
The reunion with his wife Marion was particularly emotional: “She arrived in Bahrain on Wednesday night. It was important for her to hug me. She couldn’t believe I was still whole.” Grosjean is more concerned about the suffering of his family and friends than the aftermath of the accident. “They thought for almost three minutes that I was going to die. The fact of having to go through all this brings tears to my eyes.”
But despite these dramatic moments, Grosjean wants to get back to his racing car. “I don’t want to end my career with these images.” An operation this weekend is out of the question, the consequences of the accident are too painful, incredibly he survived only with minor burns and two broken fingers. Grosjean therefore hopes for a true farewell to Abu Dhabi. “The race is important for me, but a race is not as important as the rest of my life.” If he doesn’t get fit in time, he wants to “call all the Formula 1 teams and ask if they will allow me to do a private test with ten or 15 laps just for me in January”.
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