“You enjoy life better” – Former F1 driver Romain Grosjean looks back at his scary accident and reveals how it is ‘a positive experience’

Romain Grosjean feels he has started to enjoy life better after surviving a horrific crash in 2020 in Bahrain.

The French driver lost control of his car and smashed into the barriers. As a result of the impact, the car caught fire, with Grosjean somehow miraculously walking away from the crash with only a few burns on his hands and no lasting damage. Looking back, the French driver has a very philosophical take on the incident.

In an interview with GQ magazine, Grosjean said:

“I just think you enjoy life better after. Because you were supposed to lose it, you realize that it can be gone any time. And you just become much more: carpe diem. Much more enjoying life. And for me, that’s why I say it was a positive experience. It sounds a bit crazy, but life is just more beautiful since then.”

Expanding further on it, Romain Grosjean talked about how, for him, life is there to be lived and enjoyed and that is the mantra he lives by. He said:

“Well, life is here to be lived. And if you want nothing to happen to you, you just stay home and you don’t do anything. And that’s not the way I see life. I’d rather live it at 300 kilometers an hour. Enjoy everything I can. Flying airplanes, driving race cars. Having fun, rather than just trying to say, “Oh, this could be dangerous. I’m going to stay home. I’m going to protect myself.” It’s just the way I see it. I think if I want to be happy, I’ll just need to be able to experience those things and have those sensations.”

Grosjean added:

“So that’s what I see. It’s all the trouble that you had before, that traffic jam or delayed plane or stuff like that you would moan about. That now you’re like, “Well, if I was dead I wouldn’t be here.” So it’s not such a big deal. And I think that’s why you see the biggest difference.”

Romain Grosjean’s crash a reminder of how far safety has come in F1

Romain Grosjean’s crash is a reminder of how far safety has come since the 1970s or 80s. The FIA needs to be commended for the amount of proactive work that has been put into improved safety in F1.

The kind of crash that Romain Grosjean had in his Haas and the subsequent glowing inferno would have had worse repercussions in the past. The fact that the Frenchman can live his life without any lasting damage is a testimony to how much safer the sport has become.