Romain Grosjean talks about horrible Bahrain GP accident and escape

“My F1 career cannot end like this. I told myself that I had to get out of there for my children,” says Grosjean in an interview from the hospital with French television; The Frenchman is not ruling out returning to racing for next week’s Abu Dhabi GP in what was to be his last seatless F1 outing for 2021

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Warning: The video shows Haas driver Romain Grosjean driving away from hell after an accident on the first lap at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Romain Grosjean has spoken of how he “saw death coming” as he recalled the trauma of his terrifying and fiery accident and his miraculous escape at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Grosjean continues to recover in hospital in Bahrain, where he will spend a third night in the middle of treatment for burns on the back of both hands.

He expects to be discharged on Wednesday.

“Getting better and better. Obviously, some parts are a bit painful, but that’s okay,” the Haas driver said in a video posted from the hospital on social media. “After what happened, I think the pain is not that bad. I am happy to be alive and to be able to talk to you.”

The French driver will miss the second race this weekend in Bahrain, but he does not rule out returning for the Abu Dhabi GP that ends the season next week to make sure that the accident “is not the way I ended my career in F1 “.

The season finale was already scheduled to be his last run for Haas and, most likely, in F1 in total after 10 no-contract seasons for 2021.

That Grosjean escaped Sunday’s crash with relatively minor injuries was miraculous given the scale and force of the crash. His Haas car was split in two by the high-speed 53G impact with the barriers and the wreckage he was sitting on burst into flames.

In his first interview from the hospital with France’s TF1Grosjean said: “I don’t know if the word ‘miracle’ exists or if we can use it, but in any case, it was not my time. [to go].

“It seemed to me that it lasted much more than 28 seconds.

“I saw that all my visor was orange and there were flames to the left of the car. I was thinking about many things, particularly Niki Lauda [who suffered severe burns in an accident at the 1976 German GP], and didn’t want to end up like him.

“I said to myself: ‘My F1 career cannot end like this. I told myself that I had to get out of there for my children. “

Grosjean is the father of three and the wife of the 34-year-old, Marion, posted a heartfelt message on social media on Monday in which she said they described him as a “superhero” while “explaining the inexplicable” to their young children.

“I was more afraid for my immediate family, my children in the first place,” said the Frenchman. “Because they are my greatest source of pride and energy, than for me.

“I think there will be some psychological work to do because I saw death coming.

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Warning: video shows Haas driver Romain Grosjean driving away from hell after a first lap accident at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

“I don’t think they are capable of doing something like that even in Hollywood.

“It’s the biggest crash I have ever seen with the car catching fire and exploding. The battery also caught fire, adding a lot of energy to the impact.”

Grosjean, who spent almost half a minute trapped in the flames, said: “It was almost like a rebirth and coming out of the flames that day is something that will mark my life forever.”