On a normal day, 28 seconds will blink by in a flash — a mere blip of time. But on 29 November, 2020, as fans around the world watched a Formula 1 car pierce through a safety barrier and burst into flames, those 28 seconds dragged on for what felt like hours.
Then, from the fire, he emerged: Romain Grosjean — chest heaving, shoe missing, covered in soot. This is the story of his death-defying accident at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Romain Grosjean faces death at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix
It was like the scene from an action movie. Twenty Formula 1 cars pierced the night on the first lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix, but in the blink of an eye, something went wrong. An accident. A fireball. It was the kind of wreck Formula 1 hadn’t seen in decades.
But what happened?
On the opening lap of the race, Haas driver Romain Grosjean made contact with the AlphaTauri AT01 of Daniil Kvyat. Grosjean’s VF-20 careened into — and through — a barrier at high speed, and the force of the wreck ripped the car in half. Fuel gushed onto the scene of the accident, and it all went up like a bomb had gone off.
The red flag flew. The race was halted. Fans around the world held their breath a they waited for an update — who had crashed? What had happened? Has someone died?
For 28 agonizing seconds, no one knew. And then, like a phoenix bursting from the ashes, Romain Grosjean launched from the cockpit missing a glove and a shoe, chest heaving but decidedly alive.
In the moment, Grosjean confronted death.
The driver in the VF-20 attempted to sit up and found he couldn’t; his belts were stuck.
“I sat back down and then thought about Niki Lauda,” Grosjean told The Guardian, “his accident, thought it couldn’t end like this, it couldn’t be my last race, couldn’t finish like this. No way.”
“I tried again, and I’m stuck,” he continued.
“So I go back and then there is the less pleasant moment where my body starts to relax. I am at peace with myself and I am going to die.
“I ask the question: ‘Is it going to burn my shoes or my hand? Is it going to be painful? Where is it going to start?’
“To me, that felt like two, three, four seconds. I guess it was milliseconds at the time.
“Then I think about my kids, and they cannot lose their dad today.”
He recalled looking at his racing gloves to find them changing color and melting. He was running out of time.
Speaking to the Formula 1 Exhibition team, Grosjean recalled his daring escape in detail.
“I had to break the headrest, punching it with my helmet and then I eventually managed to get my helmet through and stand up in the seat,” he said.
“I realised my left foot was stuck into the chassis and I pulled as hard as I could on my left leg. My shoe stayed in the chassis but my foot came loose so I was free to exit the car.”
Grosjean leaped from the car into the waiting arms of Dr. Ian Roberts, who was already on the scene thanks to Formula 1’s use of a medical car following the action on the first lap. Roberts commanded him to sit, the to get in an ambulance that arrived moments later.
Two minutes and 43 seconds after the VF-20 erupted, Formula 1 broadcast footage of Grosjean walking to the ambulance. The relief was palpable; he had lived.
Three months later, the FIA released an in-depth report of the accident that highlighted the magnitude of the accident. It revealed that Grosjean had collided with the triple guardrail at the apex of Turn 3 at 192 kmh (119 mph). It struck with a force of 67g.
The middle rail of the barrier had failed, allowing the Haas machine to pierce between the top and bottom rails. The bodywork ripped free from the car. But the driver safety equipment did what it needed to do. It saved Romain Grosjean’s life.
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Formula 1’s complex safety history
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Romain Grosjean would no longer be with us if his Bahrain crash had taken place in any other decade, and for that, we can thank Formula 1’s insistent hunger to continually improve safety.
While every element of an F1 car is designed to protect drivers from danger, but in Grosjean’s case, there are two particularly important features: The safety cell and the halo.
The safety cell is also known as the monocoque, which is currently built out of six millimeters of a carbon fiber composite with a layer of Kevlar designed to retain intact and protect drivers in the event of a crash. Safety cells must undergo extensive testing before they’re deemed safe.
The halo was introduced in 2018 to much controversy about how it made the Formula 1 cars look. At its basic, the halo serves as a form of cockpit protection, deflecting debris or other cars from striking a driver’s head.
Both features came into play for Romain Grosjean in Bahrain. His safety cell remained intact, while the halo shoved the metal barrier up over the driver’s head. This allowed him to remain conscious and extract himself from the blazing remains of his car. Had he been rendered unconscious by a blow to the head, the outcome would have likely been very different.
“The survival cell is there for you in case of a huge impact,” Grosjean said ahead of the debut of his wrecked Haas during the traveling F1 Exhibition show in 2024.
“I was intact inside the shell. The chassis is still in one piece, the halo is there and apart from the damage and burn it is still as it should be.
“I guess that saved my life.”
The aftermath of Romain Grosjean’s Bahrain crash
Today, when the temperature drops, Romain Grosjean’s “tattoo” on his left hand starts to ache. That’s his nickname for the burn scar on his left hand, the only physical reminder of a horrifying accident.
“From my point of view, it was a big accident, but I didn’t realise the impact or how violent it was from the outside,” Grosjean said in an interview with the Formula 1 Exhibition team.
“It was only the next day when I asked someone to show me what it looked like that I realised.
“My wife was actually watching that race with my dad and my kids. They will remember that moment their entire life. They were just spectators waiting to hear something… waiting to see something from Bahrain.”
What they saw was a hero emerging from the flames — but Grosjean would never get a chance to use his new nickname, “the Phoenix,” as a Formula 1 driver. The Haas F1 team had intended to replace him at the conclusion of 2020; they were forced to do so early thanks to the crash.
But he hasn’t stopped competing. In 2021, Romain Grosjean made his debut in America’s IndyCar Series, where he remains as a reserve driver for the new Prema Racing team. In endurance racing, he’s helping Lamborghini debut its GTP in IMSA.
The impact of his crash may not physically hold him back, but it certainly has changed the way he sees motorsport.
“Now when there’s an accident, I always ask more like, is everyone okay?” he told ESPN in 2024.
“I’m a bit more worried than I was before for my competitors because I know what it’s like to be in a big one.”
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