F1 star 'could have been champion' but was lucky just to survive horror smash

24 December 2023 , 10:00

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Romain Grosjean somehow survived this crash at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix (Image: Getty Images)

Romain Grosjean never won a Formula 1 race - but his old boss Guenther Steiner is adamant the French-Swiss driver was good enough to fight for titles.

That theory was never put to the test. Grosjean started 179 F1 races across 10 seasons, but never drove for a team that was able to give him a car capable of living up to that ambition.

He scored 10 podiums in his Lotus years before spending what would turn out to be the final five seasons of his F1 career racing for Haas. Having spent so much time together, he and team principal Steiner became good friends.

In the end, Grosjean may not have challenged for race wins and titles, but he was lucky to leave the sport with his life. A shocking crash at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix saw his car split in half and become almost instantly engulfed in a fireball.

Miraculously, he managed to free himself from the cockpit and escape the blaze, suffering second-degree burns to his hands but no serious injuries otherwise. It proved to be his last F1 race and Grosjean subsequently made the switch to the American IndyCar series.

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Writing in his book Surviving to Drive, published earlier this year, Steiner gave his verdict of the Frenchman in an entry dated January 27th, 2022. "Romain has been doing very well in IndyCar since he left," he wrote.

"I must admit it's been a little bit of a surprise how fast he's been because it's not easy. You really need to drive those things. I thought he'd struggle in the beginning but he's proved me wrong. Then again, the fact they have no power steering and are difficult to drive probably appeals to Romain.

Grosjean achieved 10 podiums in F1 but never won a race (Getty Images)

"I always said that, on a good day, Romain could have been world champion. He just could never get the consistency right. Also, when he had a bad day, he really had a bad day. You could probably say that about a lot of drivers, in that they can beat anyone on their day but their day doesn't come around often enough.

"Romain would also try too hard sometimes. At the end of the day, a driver cannot make up the deficiency of a car. Or at least, not to any great degree. He used to try to do things that the car wasn't capable of which is when things used to go wrong."

Grosjean moved to IndyCar in 2021 after his time with Haas came to an end and, for the first year, only took part in street and road course events. He then joined Andretti Autosport for the full schedule the following year and spent two seasons with the team. He has signed for Juncos Hollinger Racing for 2024, replacing Brit Callum Ilott who has switched to endurance racing.

Daniel Moxon