Haas to let Romain Grosjean make call on mental ability to race again in Bahrain

Bahrain Grand Prix

Haas to let Grosjean make call on mental ability to race again in Bahrain

French driver sustained burns to backs of hands after fireball crash

Ian Parkes

Sunday 29 November 2020 22:15

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner is to give Romain Grosjean time to think about whether he wants to race in next weekend's return to Bahrain should he physically be capable.

Grosjean escaped with his life from a fireball crash on lap one of the Bahrain Grand Prix, sustaining nothing more than burns to the backs of both hands.

With the Sakhir GP just days away around the outer track of the Bahrain International Circuit, it will become a question of whether Grosjean will want to get back into the cockpit of the VF-20.

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"That is his decision," said Steiner. "I will not let him interfere with that one. He needs to make that one up for himself. I follow his guidance there.

"I don't know how he is tomorrow when the bruises come through and maybe he thinks a little bit more about it. I don't know what someone is thinking after a thing like this.

"I don't want to start to speculate who is going to replace him, and we don't know if somebody is going to replace him or not.

"That is the reason why I want to give him a little bit of time to think about it, to give us feedback on what he wants to do, and we go from there."

Grosjean will initially need to be physically capable of driving a car, and it remains to be seen whether the burns on his hands will prevent him from doing so considering he would be required to pull the gloves on over the injuries.

“My plan is tomorrow to go and see him, see what is really happening," added Steiner.

"I didn’t go there [to the hospital] today, I just spoke on the telephone with him because we had a lot of stuff to sort out here.

"I will go there tomorrow morning to speak with him and see what the doctors have got to say and go from there.

“For sure we have always got a plan in place but at the moment my plan would be, if he is okay, to get [him] back in there in the race in Bahrain next weekend, but we have to wait until tomorrow."

Steiner recognised Grosjean's escape was miraculous, claiming there was "an angel" watching over him, while he also praised the response from the medical personnel.

“It was luck and I think a lot of people did the right thing in the circumstance, starting with him how he got out of the car," said Steiner.

"I was told that if you watch the video there is a video of the backwards-facing camera which shows how he gets out.

"So I was very impressed with the medical car, too, how quick they intervened and helped him out and also the marshals who came with the fire extinguisher, how quick they were there. It was quite impressive.

“I mean, the system obviously worked today. This is just to say a big thank you to these guys.”