Romain Grosjean in een Franse krant:
The accident:
"It's going too fast, I didn't know I hit (Daniil) Kvyat because I didn't see him. I was pissed off that I cut him off, he was in my blind spot from the exit of turn 1 at impact. I looked twice in the rear view mirror: I had gone out of the turn faster than the others, there was debris on the left, so I went to the right. For me, there was no one there, that's why I folded down at that point but there was Kvyat. The shock is subtle. Then there is the shock with the barrier, I didn't feel it violent with the car. I close my eyes.
I open my eyes, I take off my harness, I hit something that blocks me, so I think I'm blocked by the halo, I sit down and I think that someone will come to help me, I don't realize that there is a fire, I look to the left and it's all orange, I find it strange, I understand that it burns because the plastic of my tear off (the removable tabs on the visor of the helmets) has caught fire. I try to get out without succeeding, I have time to think that I'm going to end up like Niki Lauda, badly burned, I tell myself that it's not possible, that I can't end up like that. I try again, still blocked, I sit down again and there, a strange moment when I see death as close as one can see it. Almost the body that relaxes and tells itself that it's over.
I wondered which part was going to burn first, was it going to hurt. I took 53G in the head so I must have been a little stunned. I don't know if that moment helped me regain my composure, but then I pull like crazy because my left foot is stuck under the pedal.
I tell myself that I haven't yet tried to slip to one side, I put my hands in the fire, the gloves get all black, I feel the pain, I know I'm burning my hands. As the bust passes, it's deliverance, I know I'm going to live. I pass the barrier, I feel the doctor pulling on my suit and there I know that I am saved. He tells me "Sit down". I take off the gloves and yell at him because he talks to me like a badger."
Survival instinct:
"I don't know if it's natural, but the survival instinct was the strongest. For me, everything was under control. Even after I thought I was going to die, I have the lucidity to think about what movement to make. I couldn't find the extinguisher button in the car, I realized that I was putting my hands in the fire, but that it was the solution to live, everything made sense. When I put my foot on the rail, I go back down. I think I have a broken foot and two burnt hands."
Notify the family:
"I arrive at the medical center, I begin to feel a little bit softer, but mostly at the foot level, astonishment. I begin to shake because of the pain. Jean Todt (president of the FIA) asks me for my wife's number, one of the few numbers I know by heart. He was extraordinary, he called several times and then managed to reach her. He put it on speakerphone, I told him: "Mosquito, it's me." She burst out laughing and collapsed because for her I was dead. I saw death from too close, a feeling that I wish to no one, a crazy thing, it will change my life forever. I wasn't scared, I wasn't angry, I didn't want it to end that way, I swore, "It can't fucking end that way." I thought at first I didn't think it was real. Fear? No, because I tried, I did one thing after another and at one point you think, here you go, there's nothing I can do."
28 seconds to live:
"For me it was much longer than 28 seconds. Feel the muscles loosening as I sit in the seat. You're in shock, you hit a barrier at 230 km/h, you can't feel anything so I think that moment is due to the body's reflex to do some kind of rest. You calm down and what do you do?"
Watching the crash:
"I had no trouble watching them. I want to see the camera in the car which is apparently impressive. I've been told that I've remained Olympian calm. After the accident, the hardest thing was for my wife and children and my feeling for them, putting myself in their place, how they lived it, my children saw it live in front of the TV, how my relatives, more afraid for them."
Getting back in a race car:
"Yes, it will be a good thing. There will be a post-traumatic shock, I started working last night with my psychologist, my immediate desire was to get back into an F 1. I thought about Abu Dhabi - sorry Marion (his wife) - but I need it for myself, to know if I am capable, to know what I will feel, how I will react. I can't wait without knowing, I have to do everything I can to try to get back in the car. If the doctors tell me that it's not possible I will listen to them but I have to try to get back in, I need to go there, to try to do it. Being selfish."
Lessons to be learned:
"The gloves, we have to understand why they burned so quickly, why my neck came off and blocked me. We can improve that. Helmet, underwear, coveralls, it's unbelievable that it saved me. Another thing, why the safety barrier opens like that, why it comes back on the track, Jean asked me, to go to the FIA, to work.
Vettel came to see me at the hospital on Monday morning and we thought we should have trained commissioners, maybe the same ones everywhere. The one who saves me is a professional military firefighter. This gentleman knew exactly what he was doing and saved me. I didn't think about putting myself in apnea because I didn't know how to be in the fire so I was breathing normally. I'm not even sure I could last 28 seconds in the pool anyway (he laughs)."