GOOSEBUMP CITY: After Ending his F1 Career in a Massive Crash, Romain Grosjean is Getting the Ultimate Send Off
Last year, Romain Grosjean survived one of the craziest crashes in recent F1 history when on the first lap of the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix his car went flying into the wall and immediately erupted into flames. It was a HOLY SHIT moment in the F1 world because thanks to all of the modern advancements in safety technology you rarely see cars catch on fire anymore. After being trapped in the car for 27 seconds and everyone fearing the worst, Grosjean miraculously emerged walking away from the flames. If you watched "Drive to Survive" on Netflix, the behind-the-scenes reality show for F1, you saw how big of an impact this had on everyone involved with the sport. Here's the full moment from the show, serious goosebumps material.
Side Note: If you haven't watched "Drive to Survive" on Netflix yet, you are seriously missing out.
Grosjean walked away from the crash with only burns to his hands and feet and left the hospital days after the crash. It had been announced a few weeks before this crash that he had lost his seat in F1 and would not be on the grid for the 2021 season, which made this moment even more emotional. Grosjean was forced to miss the last two races of the season due to his injuries and his crash ended up being his last moment in an F1 car after nine seasons of racing at the highest level. A bittersweet moment and not how you want to see any athlete leave the sport they've spent their entire life dedicated to competing in. Enter Mercedes Team Principal, Toto Wolff.
Wolff made the comment after the crash that if Grosjean wanted to end his career on a different note that Mercedes would give him the opportunity to do a practice session in one of the races of the 2021 season. Mercedes officially announced today that Grosjean will be the test driver for Mercedes in the Frenchman's home race, The French Grand Prix. The car he will be driving is Sir Lewis Hamilton's 2019 World Championship winning car.
These are the feel-good moments that you love to see in any sport. It's going to be GOOSEBUMP CITY when they show him in an F1 car again. Here's what Grosjean had to say:
Formula 1 - "F1 didn’t get the chance to race in France during 2020 because of Covid, so driving a Mercedes at the French Grand Prix in 2021 and then completing a test at the Circuit Paul Ricard, my home track, will be so special. I can’t wait for the day to arrive.” “I’m very grateful to Mercedes F1 and to Toto for the opportunity. The first I heard about the chance to drive a Mercedes was in my hospital bed in Bahrain when Toto was speaking to the media and made the invitation. Read that news cheered me up a lot!"
My favorite part about this story is that Grosjean is going to be driving a Mercedes after spending most of his career in a Haas car that was always at the back of the pack. This is basically the equivalent of a guy who's spent his entire career on the Jets getting asked by Bill Belichick if he wants to toss a Patriots jersey on and catch some passes from Tom Brady to end his career. I know Brady doesn't play for the Pats anymore, but it worked for this analogy, give me a break.
The biggest thing I want to see is Grosjean spending the entire practice session complaining about his tires and how the car is undrivable while still putting in purple sectors in true Sir Lewis Hamilton style. The French Grand Prix where Grosjean will test driving the car is set for June 29th. Sky Sports is going to be replaying that crash and his comeback on repeat all weekend. Can't wait.
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Grosjean after leaving F1 last season is currently racing in the US-based Indy Car series, which if you're looking for more open-wheel racing to watch outside F1 is a very fun series to follow. If you want to see racing in person, Indy Car has tons of great races around the country that make it easy to go see in person no matter where you live.
The fourth F1 race of this season is THIS weekend in Barcelona. Qualifying on Saturday, race on Sunday. Let's talk about it