{"id":159157,"date":"2025-09-25T08:19:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T08:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/159157\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T08:19:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T08:19:08","slug":"romain-grosjean-returns-to-f1-car-five-years-on-from-fireball-crash-in-bahrain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/159157\/","title":{"rendered":"Romain Grosjean returns to F1 car \u2013 five years on from fireball crash in Bahrain"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Romain Grosjean<\/a> will be back in a Formula One car on Friday \u2013 five years on from his fiery crash in Bahrain<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The French driver, 39, miraculously survived a 67G fireball crash<\/a> at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix, escaping after 28 seconds in an inferno with only burns to his hands after the halo device on the Haas car saved his life. <\/p>\n

Grosjean did not race again in F1 and has, in the five years since, taken part in IndyCar and endurance racing. <\/p>\n

\"Fire<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Fire marshals put out the flames in Bahrain (POOL\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

But on Friday, Grosjean will return to the Haas F1<\/a> team to participate in a test event at the Mugello Circuit in Italy, as part of the team\u2019s TPC (Testing of Previous Cars) programme. <\/p>\n

Members of Grosjean\u2019s backroom team in F1, including current Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu, will be present on-site at the 15-turn Italian circuit. Grosjean will drive the 2023 car, the VF-23. <\/p>\n

The Frenchman will also wear a helmet designed by his kids for what was meant to be his final grand prix in Abu Dhabi five years ago, but he couldn\u2019t take part due to the injury to his hands. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo say I\u2019m excited to get back behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car would naturally be an understatement,\u201d Grosjean said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI really can\u2019t believe it\u2019s been almost five years, but to come back and have this outing with my old team is truly something special. I\u2019m excited to see everyone.<\/p>\n

\"Grosjean<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Grosjean spent a terrifying 28 seconds scrambling to escape from his car (David Davies\/PA) (PA Archive)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure we\u2019ll spend a bit of time reminiscing about the old days, but I\u2019m also keen to be of use regarding the trackside agenda with the VF-23 \u2013 it’s great the team now has the TPC program as part of its ongoing development. <\/p>\n

\u201cFinally, my kids had designed my helmet for what was meant to be my final grand prix in Abu Dhabi back in 2020 \u2013 I\u2019m at last going to be able to give it a go in a Formula 1 car on Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grosjean raced 179 times in Formula One across 10 seasons with Renault, Lotus and Haas, securing 10 podiums and registering 391 points. <\/p>\n

F1 broadcaster and ex-IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe will also drive the VF-23 on Friday, as part of a feature for F1TV ahead of next month\u2019s United States Grand Prix. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1687,372,6537,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-159157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}