Mercedes boss Toto Wolff to get F1 test call from Romain Grosjean

Mercedes

Mercedes boss Wolff to get F1 test call from Grosjean

Grosjean was offered a private test by Wolff following his accident in Bahrain last year

Ewan Gale

Thursday 4 February 2021 05:00

Romain Grosjean is set to call Toto Wolff to take up the offer made at the end of last season of a run-out in a Mercedes Formula 1 car.

The Frenchman's F1 career ended on a horrifying note with his Bahrain Grand Prix crash, with the burns sustained in the incident ruling him out of the final two races of the season.

In the aftermath, Wolff offered Grosjean a private test with his Mercedes team in the future, something the newly announced 'Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing' IndyCar driver is still excited for.

“I am still very keen on jumping in the Mercedes F1, for sure," exclaimed Grosjean.

"It is an offer that you cannot refuse, just for me to have an understanding and taste of that car and how it is working.

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"At the minute, I think they are absolutely flat out in building the new car for the season and understanding when it will start and how it is going to go so I won’t phone Toto right now.

"But he can expect to get a phone call eventually with me asking to have a go at it.

"It could be absolutely beautiful. But also, right now, I am going to the US in 15 days and I am going to spend some time there and learn about IndyCar.

"I just want to get the full IndyCar programme going before looking at other things.”

Grosjean has warned that any outing would not be in the near future due to the busy factory commitments the team faces ahead of the new season.

However, the former Haas driver revealed he had been in contact with a member of the team during the offseason.

“There hasn’t been any firm communication," he confirmed. "I have spoken to someone there and they say that right now they are very busy, building the new cars and so on which I know,

"I have been in Formula 1 long enough to understand that at this time of the year, factories are running flat out as much as you can with Covid.

"But they are getting the cars ready so it is not a good time to chase that. As I say, I will give a phone call to Toto at one point to see what can be done.

"The offer really touched me, in a good way. I was really surprised and a natural way of going for it and obviously I would love to do it.”