There are images that remain forever in the retina and one of them will be that of the terrible accident that Grosjean suffered at the 2020 Bahrain GP. The Frenchman spent 28 seconds on fire before being able to escape the flames, after an impact that occurred at the start at 191 km/h. As a result of the blow, the Haas broke in half, exploded instantly, and the remains of that car will be the ones that are exhibited in the exhibition that prepares Formula 1 in Madrid (starting next March 24 at IFEMA). The best secret of the World Cup in the last three years, will come to light “after a close collaboration between Haas and the producers of the program”, as reported in the statement.
He will do it in a special room, designed exclusively for this exhibition, which has been baptized as Survival. In it, the chassis of the VF20 will be the protagonist and will be accompanied by a great installation of the video “that shows never-before-seen footage of the accident.” This room will be part of seven other unique experiences that the exhibition will have, to offer a complete experience of the past, present and future of Formula 1, but without a doubt the one at Haas will be one of the most striking around an exhibition that has been produced in association with Round Room Live to delve much further than what is known so far about the Great Circus.
All this will be possible thanks to the involvement of the entire automotive community, although during the announcement of the presence of Grosjean’s VF20, Formula 1 wanted to especially thank “Gene Haas, Guenther Steiner and Romain Grosjean” making possible the exhibition of the remains of a dramatic moment that its main protagonist did not experience so intensely inside the car. “From my point of view, it was a big accident, but I didn’t realize the impact or the how violent it was from the outside.” recalled the Frenchman in the interview with the F1 Exhibition team.
“It was intact inside the shell”
It was the next day, when seeing the images, when Grosjean was really aware of what that impact was, that his “wife was watching with my father and my children”, to turn that moment into an indelible memory that fortunately had a happy ending. For this, the Frenchman had to break the headrest by hitting it with the helmet” and once he did, the good news came: “I managed to pass the helmet and stand on the seat. I realised that the left foot was stuck in the chassis and pulled as hard as I could on my left leg. The shoe stayed on the chassis, but my foot came off and that’s how I got out” of a car with “120 kilos of fuel plus the battery they were on fire.”
“Dr. Ian Roberts, Alan (van der Merwe) from the medical car and a fireman tried to make a hole in the fire to help me out. That helped me to have a vision of where I had to go” and find a way out, which turned everything into a big scare, also, thanks to the security elements: “The survival cell is there for you in the event of a major impact. I was intact inside the shell. The chassis is still in one piece, the halo is there and apart from the damage and burns it is still as it should. I suppose that That saved my life.”
