"My F1 career can't end like this. I told myself that I had to get out of there for my kids," says Grosjean in interview from hospital with French television; Frenchman not ruling out racing return for next week's Abu Dhabi GP in what was set to be his final F1 outing with no seat for 2021
Wednesday 2 December 2020 07:26, UK
Romain Grosjean has spoken about how he "saw death coming" as he recalled the trauma of his frightening fiery accident and miracle escape in the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Grosjean continues his recovery in hospital in Bahrain, where he will spend a third night amid treatment for burns to the back of both of his hands.
He is expecting to be discharged on Wednesday.
"Getting better and better. Obviously a few parts a bit painful but it's ok," said the Haas driver in a video posted from hospital on social media. "After what happened, I guess the pain is not too bad. I'm happy to be alive and to talk to you."
The French driver will miss this weekend's second race in Bahrain but is not ruling out a return for the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP next week to ensure that the accident "isn't the way I finish my F1 career".
The season finale was already scheduled to be his last race for Haas and, most likely, in F1 altogether after 10 seasons with no contract for 2021.
That Grosjean escaped Sunday's crash with relatively minor injuries proved miraculous given the scale and force of the accident. His Haas car was split in two by its high-speed 53G impact with the barriers and the wreckage he was sitting in burst into flames.
In his first interview from hospital with France's TF1, Grosjean said: "I don't know if the word 'miracle' exists or if we can use it, but in any case, it wasn't my time [to go].
"It felt to me like it lasted much longer than 28 seconds.
"I saw that my whole visor was orange and there were flames to the left of the car. I was thinking about many things, particularly Niki Lauda [who suffered severe burns in an accident at the 1976 German GP], and I didn't want to end up like him.
"I said to myself, "My F1 career can't end like this. I told myself that I had to get out of there for my kids."
Grosjean is a father of three and the 34-year-old's wife, Marion, posted a heartfelt message on Monday on social media in which she said they were describing him as "superhero" as they "explained the inexplicable" to their young children.
"I was more scared for my immediate family, my children first of all," said the Frenchman. "Because they're my biggest source of pride and energy, than for myself.
"I think there'll be some psychological work to do because I saw death coming.
"I don't think they'd be able to do anything quite like that even in Hollywood.
"It's the biggest crash I've seen in my life with the car catching fire and exploding. The battery also caught fire, adding so much energy to the impact."
Grosjean, who spent almost half a minute trapped in the flames, said: "It was almost like a rebirth and coming out of the flames that day is something that will mark my life forever."
