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Speaking to the international Formula 1 media for the first time since his crash at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Romain Grosjean delivered a powerful and moving memory of the events that nearly claimed his life on Sunday.
For all reporters present, it was understandably heartwarming to speak with him again.
The interview began with the 34-year-old Frenchman, simply invited by Stuart Morrison, communications manager at Haas, to go through the events following the crash and the 28 seconds he fought for himself. escape from his car.
For six minutes Grosjean spoke openly. Below is a detailed and emotional account of what he went through, his bravery, and the thoughts that ran through his mind at the time. It is not edited.
“The big question for everyone is’ What was it like? “Well, that’s the question I’ve asked the most.
“I’ll give you those 28 seconds. First of all, for me, it wasn’t quite 28 seconds. It felt more like a minute 30 if I could put a time on it.
“When the car came to a stop, I opened my eyes, I immediately undid my seat belt.
“The thing that I didn’t remember the next day was, what did I do with the wheel because I don’t remember taking the wheel off.
“They said no, the steering wheel was gone between your legs. The column and everything broke and fell off so I didn’t have to worry about the steering wheel and then I jumped.
“I feel like something is touching my head, so I sit back in the car and my first thought was, ‘I’m going to wait. I’m upside down against the wall, so I’ll wait for someone to come and help me. “.
“So I wasn’t even stressed and then obviously I was not conscious when there is fire. Then I look right and left and I look left, I see fire.
“So I said, ‘Okay, I don’t really have time to wait here. “So the next thing is I tried to go up a little more to the right. It doesn’t work. Go left again, it doesn’t work.
“Sit down and then thought about Niki Lauda, her accident, thought, it couldn’t end like this, it couldn’t be my last race, it couldn’t end like this. No way.
“So I tried again and I got stuck. So I go back there and then there is the least pleasant moment when my body starts to relax.
“I am at peace with myself and I am going to die.
“I ask the question” Will this burn my shoes or my hand? Is it going to be painful? Where is he going to start? “
“To me it sounds like two, three, four seconds. I guess it was milliseconds back then.
“Then I think about my children and they cannot lose their father today.
“So I don’t know why I did it but I decided to turn my helmet on the left side, I tried to twist my shoulder. It worked but I realized my foot was stuck. in the car.”
“So I sit back down, pull as hard as I can on my left leg. The shoe stayed where it was but my foot comes out of my shoe.
“Then I do it again, and my shoulder is going through, and the moment the shoulder goes through I know I’m going to jump.”
“I had both hands in the fire at the time. My gloves are red normally, so I see, especially the one on the left, that it was changing color and starting to melt and turn completely black and I could feel the pain, that my hands were on fire.
“But also I feel the relief that I got out of the car, then I jump and go over the barrier. I smell Ian. [Dr Roberts] put on my jumpsuit, so I know I’m not alone anymore, there’s someone with me.
“Then I land and they like to touch my back so I was like ‘Oh shit! I’m like a fireball running ‘like this picture we saw the FIA video where they did a test they set someone on fire and he runs to show that the together is strong, I have this image that I have the fire following me.
“Then I squeeze my hands because they are very hot and painful. I immediately took off my gloves because I also have this image that the skin bubbles, melts and will stick to the gloves.
“So right away, I want to take off my two gloves right away so that my hands… so that the skin is not accompanied.
“Then Ian comes to me and talk to me, and he says ‘Sit down!’ I gave him some shit. I said ‘Talk to me normally please.’ I guess he figured out that I was fine at the time, I was normal.
“Then we sit down and get too close to the fire, I hear the fire extinguishers and the fire thing guys, ‘The battery is on fire, bring another extinguisher.’
“Then we get in the medical car, we sit down and they put a cold compress on my hands because I told them my hands were burnt and my foot was broken.
“And then the pain really starts to get really bad, especially in the left foot. The hands were fine at the time but the left foot started to hurt a lot.
“Then Ian explains to me that the ambulance is coming, they will come with the bed and everything is fine.
“We keep talking at that point. I said, ‘No, no, no, we’re going to the ambulance.’ He said, ‘No, no, no, the bed is coming.’ I said, ‘ No no no. “
“I got out of the car and I said ‘We’re walking.’ They said, ‘Okay, we’ll help you.’
“I guess on the medical side it wasn’t the perfect decision, but they understood that for me it was essential at that point that there were footage of me walking towards the ambulance and that even If I was out of the fire., I had to send another strong message that I was fine and was going to walk to the ambulance.
“ Then every time I met someone I would say ‘Two burnt hands, one broken foot. That’s all I could say to anyone I met just because I was obviously scared of my conditions and wanted everyone who came and treated me to know what the symptoms were.
“That’s the full story of 28 seconds and the rest. You can imagine it went on for over 28 seconds with all the thoughts I was having.
“It must have lasted for milliseconds, but to all my thoughts it sounded like one, two, three seconds, I don’t know.”
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