A fiery inferno, Gunther Steiner remembers the crash of Romain Grosjean at the Bahrain GP in 2020—a pivotal moment for the future of motorsport, which definitively legitimized the use of safety measures like the halo system. But it was also a near-tragedy that left an indelible mark on the staff involved and on the career of the French driver.
There are moments that will forever remain in the memory of racing fans. These could be victories with particular emotional weight, but also crashes that leave everyone holding their breath for long moments. Motorsport is dangerous—a mantra silently repeated by everyone in the paddock. And sometimes, one cannot help but remember it.
In 2020, already a challenging year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Formula 1 narrowly avoided disaster: a contact, even a minor one, between Romain Grosjean and Daniil Kvyat sent the Frenchman almost perpendicularly into the barriers. An impact at over 200 km/h split the car in two, wedging it into the guardrail and engulfing it in a fireball caused by the fuel explosion.
“There Was Only One Way to Survive”: Gunther Steiner Recalls Moments of Terror
In an interview on the Sky F1 podcast, Gunther Steiner—then the team principal of Haas, where Romain Grosjean was driving—recalled his emotions at the pit wall: “The most important reflection is that we were lucky. Someone was watching over us. Those were the shortest and longest 30 seconds of my life. At that moment, I knew that if [Grosjean] didn’t get out immediately, he wouldn’t come out at all.”
“I’ve been in racing a long time: when you see that fireball, you know that the only way to survive is to jump out of the car. While I was trying to get control of the situation, he jumped out. It ended there, we were okay—the most important thing was that he was alive; we’d handle the rest later.”
“I think of the positives, the safety of these race cars. Without the halo, he wouldn’t have had a chance to survive. [I think of] the people who helped him. He was lucky, but F1’s strictness was responsible for his luck. After a crash, they introduce new measures to make racing safer. I credit Jean Todt, who pushed the halo system through despite opposition from many.” – he concluded.
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