Grosjean spent three nights in hospital before being discharged on Wednesday morning after receiving treatment for burns to his hands. He is staying in Bahrain this week while the Sakhir Grand Prix takes place on a different, shorter configuration of the circuit.
Romain Grosjean will not take part this weekend’s Sakhir GP due to injuries, but his teammate Kevin Magnussen and fellow F1 drivers will miss Frenchman’s presence on the Grid and they sent Warm wishes to Bahrain GP Driver of the day.
F1 debutant Pietro Fittipaldi, the team’s reserve driver is set to replace the 34-year-old’s place in the Haas team for this weekend’s Sakhir GP. Since Haas announced in October that Grosjean & Kevin will leave the team at the end of the year, one could say the Frenchman drove his final F1 race with Haas, unless he recovers from injuries within a week from now for final race of 2020 season in Abu Dhabi.
On Thursday, Grosjean, with his hands still bandaged, returned to the paddock to spend time with his team and meet Dr Ian Roberts, F1’s chief medical officer, and Alan van der Merwe, the medical car driver who, along with track marshals, were the first people to arrive at the scene of the accident.
Kevin Magnussen, Grosjean’s team-mate at Haas, also spent time with Grosjean on Thursday and confirmed his colleague is keen to return to action for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix next week.
Asked how Grosjean was feeling, Magnussen said: “Everything taken into consideration, I would say really good. His spirit is incredible after what he has just been through.
“It’s been a horrible experience this whole thing. Of course it had a happy ending because he survived relatively unscathed, which is incredible.
“It was a real wake-up, especially being someone you know so well and care about. I’ve worked with Romain for four years very closely as team-mates and that makes it different.
“He’s very positive and reflective on the whole thing and seems pretty strong about it.
“I went to see him straight after the race on Sunday, literally a few hours after he escaped from those scenes, and already then he was talking about wanting to get back in the car, so I just have to take my hat off to him.”
