asked while watching footage of Grosjean’s escape. “That’s
an act of God.”
That Grosjean survived is as close to a miracle as you
might find. Despite the massive fire, the safety measures
in place worked as they were supposed to. The front of
the vehicle absorbed the brunt of the shock. The rear of
the car split when the carbon fiber survival cell could
no longer hold on to it. And the halo—a titanium ring
around the cockpit—punched a hole through the barri-
cade, preventing Grosjean from being impaled. Somehow,
he escaped with only a badly sprained ankle and severe
burns on his left hand.
When the halo was first implemented in 2018, some driv-
ers—Grosjean included—scoffed. It was ugly, he thought.
It’d take away from his peripheral vision and make it
harder to drive. Looking back, Grosjean admits he was
stupid. He didn’t think it could save lives, until it saved his.THE R E ’ S A QUOT E
Grosjean shares, originally spoken
by Senna: “If you no longer go for a
gap that exists, then you’re no lon-
ger a racing driver.” Drivers have to
ignore their fears. One wrong move,
or a punctured tire or a force beyond
their control could mean certain death.
But they can’t let the thought creep in.
As Magnussen tells it, once a driver is
strapped into their car, it’s almost as
if they’re transported to a different
world where the danger doesn’t exist.
“There’s no place for fear, or doubt
or panic, because if you do that, you’re
cooked,” Grosjean says.
Grosjean hasn’t watched “Man on
Fire,” the episode of Drive to Survive
chronicling his accident. It’s dif-
ficult, having the most traumatic
moment of your life not only caught
on film, but also neatly packaged for
the world to see. In November he
underwent what he hopes will be his final surgery
stemming from the crash—a skin graft on his left hand
that alleviated the pain he felt doing simple tasks,
like bending his finger or slipping on his sneakers,
and brought his total stitches count up to 130. “It’s
just painful all the time,” Grosjean told Magnussen
at a reunion in Detroit this summer. “Except when
I drive.”
Something about gripping the wheel feels natural.
Grosjean never considered stepping away from racing.
He’s a driver; he needed to be on the track. He’d pondered
IndyCar before the accident, after learning he’d lost his seat
at Haas. The cars aren’t too different, and the road courses
bend in a manner that plays to Grosjean’s strengths.
Around Christmas, Olivier Boisson, a French race engi-
neer with Dale Coyne Racing’s IndyCar team, stopped
by Grosjean’s home in Geneva. It was a recruiting trip;81 SPORTSPERSON OF THE YEAR 2021“YOU CANNOT GET LUCKY WITH FIRE,” says
Steiner, the team principal at Haas. “I was
just conscious that if he doesn’t come out in
the next 20 seconds, he’s not coming out.”KA
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