Romain Grosjean gets back to an F1 with haas
The Frenchman, who closed his passage through the World Cup in the tremendous accident of Baréin 2020, will turn on Friday in Mugello with a 2023 car.
The image of Haas split and wrapped in flames will last until the end of the days. In that 2020 Baréin GP, between chins and in the middle of the pandemic, the worst was feared. Pessimism was the logical response to the dreadful accident that had just suffered Romain Grosjean in the first round. Firefighters approached fearful with their fire extinguishers. Suddenly, the Frenchman appeared between the fire and left that bonfire in which his VF-20 had become. The pilot barely suffered burns in his hands and legs. Barely, taking into account accident size. That moment marked the closure of his campaign as Formula 1 corridor.
Almost five years later, Grosjean will go back to a F1 car. It will be this Friday, in Mugello, in a TPC test (cars of at least two years old). The French will climb a 2023 HAAS as reported by the American team. It will be a way to close a cycle that had an abrupt final. The most emotional part is that the Frenchman already knew that the ABU Dhabi GP of 2020 would be his last participation in the World Cup, but he could not arrive. LThe injuries for the burns left him out of the last two appointments of that season and the helmet designed by his children, which he was going to use in Yas Marina, was stored somewhere in his house. But the revenge will arrive this Friday: it will turn with that special helmet in the Mugello test.
“Finally, my children designed my helmet for what was supposed to be my last Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi in 2020. I can finally try it in a Formula 1 car,” said Grosjean. “I am incredibly grateful to Gene Haas and Ayao Komatsu for inviting me to participate in the TPC in Mugello. To say that I am excited to put myself at the wheel of a Formula 1 car would be, naturally, to fall short. I really can’t believe that almost five years have passed, but returning and having this exit with my old team is really something special. I am excited to see them all, I am sure we will spend a while remembering the old days, but I am also anxious to be useful with respect to the agenda on the track with the VF-23, ”he added.
For the occasion, Grosjean will feature his original team. Komatsu, today director of Haas, will return to the French track engineer function in 2020. Ian Staniforth, who these days is the chief mechanic of the racing team, will be the number 1 mechanic of the Grosjean car in Mugello, as was a five years behind.
