Romain Grosjean will return to a Formulation 1 cockpit for the primary time since his fiery crash on the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix in a take a look at on Friday.
The Franco-Swiss driver will participate in a Testing of Earlier Automobile (TPC) run for former workforce Haas at Mugello, driving the 2023 VF-23. Mugello held a sole Formulation 1 grand prix, the Tuscan Grand Prix, through the COVID-affected 2020 season, with Grosjean ending twelfth for Haas in that race.
“I’m extremely grateful to Gene Haas and to Ayao Komatsu for inviting me to take part within the TPC at Mugello,” mentioned Grosjean. “To say I’m excited to get again behind the wheel of a Formulation 1 automotive would naturally be an understatement.
“I actually can’t consider it’s been virtually 5 years, however to return again and have this outing with my outdated workforce is actually one thing particular. I’m excited to see everybody, I’m certain we’ll spend a little bit of time reminiscing concerning the outdated days, however I’m additionally eager to be of use relating to the trackside agenda with the VF-23 – it is nice the workforce now has the TPC program as a part of its on-going growth.
“Lastly, my children had designed my helmet for what was meant to be my last grand prix in Abu Dhabi again in 2020 – I’m ultimately going to have the ability to give it a go in a Formulation 1 automotive on Friday.”
A lot of Haas’ heritage division – which runs Haas’ TPC program – was a part of Grosjean’s crew throughout his time driving for Haas, together with Dominc Haines, who will oversee the day and was beforehand Grosjean’s race engineer in 2019 and ’20. Grosjean’s former No. 1 race mechanic Ian Staniforth will even be there in his present capability as race workforce help chief, whereas present Haas workforce principal Ayao Komatsu was trackside engineering director throughout Grosjean’s stint at Haas and was his race engineer at Lotus the place the pair scored 10 podiums collectively.
“I’m completely thrilled to be welcoming Romain Grosjean again right into a Formulation 1 automotive for the primary time in 5 years however particularly proud he’s returning in certainly one of our vehicles – it’s solely becoming,” mentioned Komatsu.
“Romain and I’ve labored collectively all through his complete Formulation 1 profession so this take a look at at Mugello is of explicit significance to us each.
“I’m delighted he embraced the chance to return and get again behind the wheel with us, a day that’s going to be made additional particular by having so many members of the unique crew again collectively to witness it.
“It needs to be a enjoyable day and understanding Romain as I do, I do know he’ll need to give it his all as typical – I’d anticipate nothing much less, not least as we’ve talked about making this occur for a very long time now.”
Grosjean’s return behind the wheel of a Formulation 1 automotive is a very long time coming. He was beforehand set to check Mercedes’ 2020 Mercedes-AMG W10 EQ Energy+ – the automotive that received the race the place Grosjean had his accident – across the 2021 French Grand Prix, and even had a seat becoming, however the run did not go forward. Since leaving F1 following his crash, Grosjean has competed in 64 NTT IndyCar sequence races for Dale Coyne Racing, Andretti International, and Juncos Hollinger Racing, reaching six podium finishes. He has additionally been part of Lamborghini’s manufacturing unit driver lineup, racing 9 instances within the IMSA SportsCar sequence’s GTD Professional and GTP lessons since 2023.
In addition to Grosjean, six-time IndyCar race winner and 2016 Indianapolis 500 polesitter James Hinchcliffe will even be making his F1 bow, driving the VF-23 as effectively, as a part of a characteristic for F1 TV that can air throughout america Grand Prix weekend.
