"It's painful 23 hours a day" - Romain Grosjean one year after fiery Bahrain crash
Romain Grosjean was the most recent F1 star on Nico Rosberg's highly-acclaimed podcast. The Swiss-French driver has enjoyed a long career in the sport, alongside greats such as Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso. He finally called it quits a year ago after surviving a horrific crash at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Nico Rosberg initially spoke about the more light-hearted moments from the former Haas driver's career. Eventually, they moved on to Grosjean's fiery accident which saw him engulfed in flames for what seemed like an eternity.
Romain Grosjean was stuck in the burning wreckage for 27 seconds before he could finally make it out. Revealing what it was like to be stuck within the flames, he said:
"At one point, I thought, you know, that was it. Game over. That's why I say, to me, I don't know, I was five or ten seconds from being dead. And eventually thought about my three kids and said, 'No, I can't leave them without a dad.' That's when I found the final energy to jump out of the car even though I could feel my hands burning. Normally, when you touch something hot, you touch it and remove, but I had to keep my hands on the fire to get the grip."
Though Romain Grosjean suffered terrible burns to his hands, he is also fortunate compared to many others who have been in similar situations.
The driver, who has since left the sport and moved on to IndyCar, gave us an update on the condition of his hands, saying:
"Well, you know, the right [hand] is good. The left is a little bit less good. I can almost live normally. I cannot cope with the cold and cannot put sun for two years on it. So I need to put sunscreen and gloves and so on. It is painful 23 hours a day, I need to do rehab exercise every ten minutes just to not lose mobility. So it is not all nice, but I have two hands, I can drive my cars, I can cuddle [with] my kids and I can play with them, that's what matters."
Even after going through the traumatic experience, Romain Grosjean still indulges in his passion for racing. The podcast also touched on his IndyCar prowess as well as the simulation racing, or sim-racing, he did over the pandemic.
Romain Grosjean passionate about sim-racing
Romain Grosjean kept his passion for racing alive during the 2020 lockdown by indulging in sim-racing. The Frenchman has his own team, R8G eSports, which competes across a number of competitions in simulation games such as rFactor 2, Gran Turismo and iRacing.
Incredible to see @RGrosjean set a lap of the New York circuit ⚡️
He set the time in single player from his own sim rig so we can’t count it on the studio leader board, but impressive FE street racing skills from Romain!
#FEAccelerate #Allianz https://t.co/T4rL5WwyPi
Grosjean wants to help bridge the gap between real-life racing and sim-racing, giving younger, less-fortunate fans a chance to live their dreams. He said:
"It’s a really great tool and I want to make more of the bridge between reality and the virtual world and enable that transition. We’ve already seen it with one of our drivers, Gordie Mutch, who’ll race in Britcar this year. It’s a step in the right direction but I want to see more."
While Romain Grosjean's road to recovery is a painful one, it's thanks to safety advances that Romain Grosjean didn't come off any worse than he did.