“They made me cry at the end of the day," claims Grosjean as he reflects on his drive …

Former Components One driver Romain Grosjean made a long-awaited return to the cockpit of an F1 automotive on Friday as a part of a particular check session along with his former workforce Haas on the Mugello Circuit in Italy.

Romain Grosjean returned to the cockpit of one in every of his Components 1 automobiles for the primary time for the reason that 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix because the Frenchman participated in a TPC (Testing of Earlier Automotive) check on the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello on Friday 26 September.

The 39-year-old spent a complete of 5 seasons competing for Haas from 2016 to 2020 – his time in Components 1 ending abruptly following a horrific opening lap accident in his VF-20 on the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday 29 November 2020. Grosjean survived each the barrier affect – measured at 67G, in addition to the hearth that adopted, extracting himself from the wreckage along with his accidents restricted to burns to the again of his arms.

Grosjean strapped into the cockpit of the VF-23 at Mugello – a monitor the place he holds a twelfth place end from Components 1’s sole go to to the the Tuscan Grand Prix which was held in 2020 through the sport’s diminished COVID-impacted season.

Final Friday’s monitor actions had been overseen by members of Grosjean’s authentic Haas crew – a lot of whom now work on the TPC and heritage packages being run by the American squad. Haas workforce boss Ayao Komatsu, who was Grosjean’s race engineer after they beforehand labored collectively at Lotus F1 Staff, served as race engineer at Mugello.

Dominic Haines was additionally on-site to supervise proceedings – the Englishman was previously Grosjean’s race engineer from 2019-2020 and he at the moment serves as Heritage Chief Engineer. Grosjean’s long-serving No.1 Race Mechanic, Ian Staniforth, was additionally current at Mugello in his present capability as Race Staff Help Chief Mechanic – with a number of extra workforce members on the operational and storage facet additionally in attendance having labored with Grosjean all through his 98 race begins with Haas.

Commenting on his emotional day with Haas at Mugello, Grosjean stated: “It was a moist day, however as we are saying, it was a wet marriage ceremony, a wet pleased marriage ceremony. So it was a wet day, pleased day, improbable.

“Simply felt a bit rusty at first, after which every little thing got here again. I even obtained to do a standing begin, and guess what, my final standing begin was Bahrain 2020. So this time it turned out approach higher.

“Very grateful, very distinctive alternative attending to see among the folks that had been in Australia 2016 and get to drive the brand new technology of automobiles. It was improbable and, once more, I am very, very grateful. There’s simply no different phrases.”

Grosjean continued: “They made me cry on the finish of the day!I stored my visor down, however for my final in-lap, everybody from Ferrari, Pink Bull, Pirelli and naturally Haas F1 workforce was right here, clapping and giving me like an ovation. That is one thing I used to be anticipating in Abu Dhabi 2020 [for his planned F1 farewell], however I believe it was even higher right this moment.”

F1earlier