Grosjean on Haas F1 take a look at: “They made me cry!”

5 years on from his Formulation 1 career-ending Bahrain Grand Prix accident, Romain Grosjean made an emotional return to F1 in a Mugello take a look at.

A Haas driver from 2016 to 2020 earlier than he moved on to IndyCar, Grosjean bought the possibility to drive the crew's VF-23 automobile from the 2023 marketing campaign alongside F1 TV pundit and former IndyCar racer James Hinchcliffe, who bought his first style of F1 for an upcoming function on the championship's official broadcast channel.

Little info has emerged in regards to the take a look at day, which happened alongside Pirelli improvement working, aside from the prevalence of rain; regardless, Grosjean was ecstatic following his expertise – and the emotion of an ovation within the pitlane.

“It was a moist day, however as we are saying, it was a wet marriage ceremony, a wet blissful marriage ceremony,” the 39-year-old stated. “So it was a wet day, blissful day, unbelievable.

“Simply felt a bit rusty at first, after which every little thing got here again. I even bought to do a standing begin, and guess what, my final standing begin was Bahrain 2020. So this time it turned out approach higher.

“Very grateful, very distinctive alternative attending to see among the folks that had been in Australia 2016 and get to drive the brand new era of automobiles. It was unbelievable and, once more, I am very, very grateful. There's simply no different phrases.”

Group principal Ayao Komatsu, who adopted Grosjean from Lotus to Haas as a race engineer for 2016, and heritage chief engineer Dominic Haines, who was Grosjean's race engineer from 2019-2020, had been in attendance amongst many pleasant faces for the Geneva native.

“They made me cry on the finish of the day!” Grosjean exclaimed. “I stored my visor down, however for my final in-lap, everybody from Ferrari, Pink Bull, Pirelli and naturally Haas F1 crew was right here, clapping and giving me like an ovation.

“That is one thing I used to be anticipating in Abu Dhabi 2020 [for his planned F1 farewell], however I believe it was even higher in the present day.”