Romain Grosjean has been reunited with the Formula 1 helmet that saved his life during his horrific crash at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix.
The French-Swiss driver suffered a serious crash on the first lap of the race at the Sakhir circuit. After contact with Daniil Kvyat, he hit a guardrail at high speed, splitting the car in half and was quickly engulfed in flames. Amazingly, Grosjean was able to crawl out of the wreckage after being trapped for 28 seconds. After the impact of 67G, although law enforcement officers helped pull him away from the hot and damaged chassis, he was still keen to walk on his own to show his family watching on the screen that he was okay.
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The 39-year-old suffered burns to his hands and ankles and later underwent surgery. In addition to the helmet, the halo is also credited with saving his life.
“November 29, 2020 After 5 years I put on a race helmet again,” he wrote on Instagram. “I don’t know if I’m ready to watch it but my kids really want to know how I got so well protected in a fire and what happened that night.
“I will forever be grateful to @bellracinghq and @alpinestars for protecting me so well in that moment.
Life passes and we forget, but this reminds me that we should make the most of each day we live. “
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After leaving F1 in 2020 and recovering from a crash, Grosjean switched to the IndyCar Series in 2021.
Grosjean had the opportunity to return to F1 with his former team Haas in September 2025, when the American team tested at the Mugello circuit.
“I am very grateful to Gene Haas and Ayao Komatsu for inviting me to the TPC at Mugello,” Grosjean said at the time. “To say I’m delighted to be back behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car would be an understatement of course. I really can’t believe it’s been almost five years but it’s really special to be back out and about with my old team.
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“I’m delighted to meet everyone and I’m sure we’ll spend some time reminiscing about the old days, but I’m also keen to have a hand in VF-23’s track agenda – it’s great that the team is now working on the TPC program as part of its ongoing development. Finally, my boys designed the helmet for my last Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi in 2020 – I was finally able to give it a test drive in a Formula 1 car on Friday.”
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