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<\/p>\nRomain Grosjean will drive a Haas Formula One car in Italy on Friday for the first time since a 2020 fireball crash ended the French racer’s grand prix career and nearly killed him.<\/p>\n
Haas said the 39-year-old, who raced for the US-owned team for five seasons, would test a 2023 Haas VF-23 at the Mugello circuit.<\/p>\n
Members of his original crew, including current team principal Ayao Komatsu, who was previously a race engineer, will be in attendance.<\/p>\n
“To say I\u2019m excited to get back behind the wheel of a Formula One car would naturally be an understatement,” said Grosjean in a statement.<\/p>\n
“I really can\u2019t believe it\u2019s been almost five years, but to come back and have this outing with my old team is truly something special.<\/p>\n
“My kids had designed my helmet for what was meant to be my final grand prix in Abu Dhabi back in 2020 \u2013 I\u2019m at last going to be able to give it a go in a Formula One car on Friday.”<\/p>\n
Grosjean’s car, loaded full of fuel, speared through the metal barriers after a 192kph impact \u2013 ripping in half before erupting in a fireball \u2013 on the opening lap of the 29 November race at Bahrain’s desert Sakhir circuit.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Frenchman, whose left foot was initially trapped and who suffered burns to his hands, miraculously managed to extricate himself after 27 seconds.<\/p>\n
He said later he thought he was going to die but willed himself out of the inferno for the sake of his children.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m absolutely thrilled to be welcoming Romain Grosjean back into a Formula One car for the first time in five years but especially proud he\u2019s returning in one of our cars \u2013 it\u2019s only fitting,” said Komatsu in a statement.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m delighted he embraced the opportunity to come and get back behind the wheel with us, a day that\u2019s going to be made extra special by having so many members of the original crew back together to witness it.”<\/p>\n
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff had offered Grosjean a farewell test in one of his cars but that never happened due to Covid and the Frenchman’s busy schedule racing in the US IndyCar series.<\/p>\n
Canadian former IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe, now 38, will also attend the test and drive a Formula One car for the first time as part of a feature for Formula One television.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Romain Grosjean will drive a Haas Formula One car in Italy on Friday for the first time since…","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,43],"tags":[46,39,48,49,58,54],"class_list":["post-4061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-national","category-sports","tag-africa","tag-entertainment","tag-feature","tag-human-interest","tag-national","tag-sports","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/div><\/strong><\/p>\n