F1 star Romain Grosjean makes incredible return five years after horror crash

Grosjean in firey crash in Bahrain — Photo: © IMAGO

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F1 star makes incredible return five years after horror crash

Romain Grosjean has returned to an F1 car

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Friday 26 September 2025 17:57

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Former F1 star Romain Grosjean has taken to the track once more, five years on from a horror crash which ended his career in the sport.

The 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix saw the French driver slam into the barriers at high speed, with his Haas car breaking into two and a fireball engulfing the car.

Remarkably, Grosjean managed to escape with burns on his hands having been trapped in the car for 27 seconds.

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The incident ended his F1 career early, with Pietro Fittipaldi stepping into the Haas to finish off the season.

Now, however, Grosjean is back in an F1 car. The Frenchman has taken to the Mugello Circuit in Haas' 2023 car to complete an official test as part of the testing of previous cars (TPC) programme.

Grosjean took to the team's official X page to reveal his excitement at stepping into an F1 car once again, and also revealed his helmet design for the test, which was designed by his children for what was supposed to be his final race in F1, the 2020 Abu Dhabi GP.

Having not been able to race in that event, that helmet design was never used in F1, until now, as the 39-year-old completed several laps around the Mugello track on Friday.

Grosjean's F1 career

Following his scary crash in Bahrain five years ago, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said that Mercedes would offer Grosjean a test once he was back up to speed, but it's his old team Haas that have beaten Mercedes to it.

Grosjean raced with Haas between 2016-2020, picking up 104 points for the American outfit in that time.

The Frenchman experienced his most successful spell in F1 with Lotus, racing with them between 2012-2015 and picking up all 10 of his career podiums in those four seasons.

His return is a remarkable effort from the 39-year-old, who has spent the last few years racing in IndyCar and the World Endurance Championship.