[imagesource: F1 TV]

Last November, Frenchman Romain Grosjean was very fortunate to walk away from his crash at the Bahrain Grand Prix in one piece.

The 34-year-old slid off the track on the first lap of the race, with his vehicle ripping in two and catching alight.

Grosjean escaped with second-degree burns to his hands, and relatively minor injuries, which is testimony to the increased safety measures implemented in Formula One in recent years.

Here’s a recap of that crash, complete with Grosjean’s message from hospital:

Despite the brutal nature of the crash (according to an FIA spokesperson, the impact of Grosjean’s crash was measured at 53G), he says he remembers the events with great clarity.

In conversation with CNN, Grosjean recounted what went through his mind:

“Twenty-eight seconds I was in the flames, if you look…”If you ask me how long it was, I would have said a minute … minute-and-a-half.”

…”I remember everything about it, every single detail — from the moment I started undoing my seat belt, to the moment I realized I was stuck in the car thinking it was okay, they [race safety staff] would come and help me to jump out, then realizing there’s fire,” says Grosjean.

“I realized after a few attempts of jumping out that I was completely stuck and thinking that I’m going to burn here. I asked myself: where is it going to start? By the foot? By the hands? By the head? Is it going to be painful or not?”

Burns tend to be painful. Ask anybody who’s ever yanked a tray out of the oven sans gloves.

Obviously, Grosjean was dealing with a potentially life-threatening situation, and began to think of his family:

“I was in peace and accepting it, but then that’s where I thought about my kids and that I couldn’t leave three kids without a dad,” says Grosjean of sons Sacha and Simon and daughter Camille.

“I had to try a last attempt. That moment was more like a reset button for my brain.”

…”That was really the target when I was in the fire, it was jumping out to go and see my kids. They were the energy that I had.”

Grosjean’s fireproof suit, as well as the cockpit survival cell, proved important, and then there were the swift actions of those who arrived on the scene first.

One of those first on the scene was South African race car driver Alan van der Merwe, who was driving the Formula One medical car, often referred to as the fastest ambulance in the world.

During the first lap of each race, van der Merwe and Dr Ian Roberts drive behind the field, with crashes and incidents often occurring soon after the race begins.

Van der Merwe was singled out by the Haas F1 team, for whom Grosjean was driving at the time.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Bahrain Grand Prix was his final race of a Formula One career which saw him claim 10 podiums in 179 attempts.

Grosjean has confirmed that he has held discussions with Mercedes about testing one of its Formula One cars, so he may yet get a farewell of sorts.

Although he is still working on achieving full mobility in his hands, which remain blistered, he has now turned his attention towards a different motorsport, having signed up to compete in IndyCar in the United States with Dale Coyne Racing:

IndyCar races are contested across different types of track — ovals, street circuits and road courses. Grosjean has decided for now that he won’t race at oval events, which includes the iconic Indy 500, in light of the crash in Bahrain.

“If I was 25 and single, I would go and do the ovals, that wouldn’t be a problem,” he says.

“But what I cannot accept right now is putting my wife [above right] and my kids in the same situation as they were in Bahrain.

Older and wiser, although IndyCar races are renowned for some pretty spectacular crashes, too.

Let’s hope for his sake, and the sake of his family, that he’s never again forced to endure the kinds of thoughts he did in Bahrain.

You can read his full CNN interview here.

[source:cnn]