‘They made me cry!’ – Grosjean hails ‘fantastic’ F1 return as emotional Haas test day ends with standing ovation

Romain Grosjean has admitted that he was overcome with emotion at the end of his special test outing on Friday, which marked the Frenchman’s first drive in an F1 car for almost five years.

Grosjean made his last F1 appearance at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix when he crashed through the barriers on the opening lap – a shocking incident that engulfed his Haas car in flames and left him with burns to both hands.

Haas gave him an opportunity to make a comeback this week, however, as part of a Testing of Previous Car (TPC) event at the Mugello Circuit in Italy.

Grosjean took to a wet track with a helmet designed by his children that he had planned to wear at the 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – this set to be his final F1 race before he was ruled out.

Also in attendance were Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur and now-Haas Team Principal Ayao Komatsu, who took on his previous role as Grosjean’s race engineer, while a couple of other F1 outfits were present for Pirelli tyre testing.

Speaking when he hopped out of the car, Grosjean said: “Five years after Bahrain, here we are at Mugello. A big thanks to MoneyGram Haas F1 Team, it was a special day! Of course, Gene Haas, Ayao Komatsu, they made it happen.

“It was a wet day, but as we say with weddings, rainy wedding, happy wedding, so it was a rainy day, happy day. I felt a bit rusty at first, then everything came back. I even got to do a standing start, and guess what? My last standing start was Bahrain 2020. This time it turned out way better!

“A very unique opportunity, getting to see some of the people that were in Australia 2016 [for Haas’ first Grand Prix], and to get to drive the new generation of car. It was fantastic. I’m very, very grateful. There are just no other words.

“They made me cry at the end of the day! I kept my visor down, but for my last in-lap everyone from Ferrari, Red Bull, Pirelli and of course MoneyGram Haas F1 Team was here, clapping and giving me like an ovation. That’s something I was expecting in Abu Dhabi 2020, but I think it was even better today.”