Romain Grosjean made his F1 return with Haas under Testing Previous Car programme in Mugello as he had an emotional reunion, while James Hinchcliffe had his first run.
Having handed out chances to Toyota-backed drivers which includes Kamui Kobayashi, Haas went a step ahead and handed out a TPC run to its former driver Grosjean in Mugello on Friday. The Frenchman, whose career was cut short due to the horrific fire crash in Bahrain, returned to the F1 cockpit.
The 2020 crash is one of the biggest modern era near-death escape for a F1 driver. His hands got burned in the process and he couldn’t do the last two races after he was announced to being replaced for 2021. Toto Wolff confirmed a test opportunity in a Mercedes car, but the test never happened.
In the meantime, Grosjean started racing in IndyCar and WEC/IMSA championships. He got the opportunity to re-unite with Haas and have his last hurrah. The American team has upped its TPC run, thanks to the partnership with Toyota Gazoo Racing.
Grosjean used the same helmet that he was supposed to use in Abu Dhabi – designed by his children. The Frenchman made an emotional return, with now Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu undertaking the race engineer role as he did when the F1 podium finisher was racing.
Since the TPC run co-incided with Pirelli’s 2026 tyre test, current Haas drivers Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman were present at the scene, as was Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, Frederic Vasseur and Zhou Guanyu. Also present was Arvid Lindblad for his TPC run with Red Bull, but Lewis Hamilton skipped Ferrari’s, due to his dog Roscoe going into coma.
Grosjean was emotional after the run as not just Haas, but everyone in the pitlane from Ferrari to Pirelli to Red Bull gave him a guard of honour after his final lap. “Five years after Bahrain; here we are, Mugello,” said the Frenchman in a brief audio note. “Big thanks to MoneyGram Haas F1 team.
“It was a special day. Of course, Gene Haas, Ayao Komatsu — they made it happen. I drove the car. It was a wet day but as we say with weddings, raining wedding is a happy wedding. So it was a rainy day, happy day. Fantastic. Just felt a bit rusty at first, and then everything came back. Even got to do a standing start — and guess what? My last standing start was Bahrain 2020!
“This time it turned out way better. Very grateful; very unique opportunity of getting to see some of the people that were in Australia 2016, and to get to drive the new generation of car. It was fantastic. Again, I’m very, very grateful. There are just no words. They made me cry at the end of the day! I kept my visor down, but for my last in-lap everyone from Ferrari, Red Bull, Pirelli and of course MoneyGram Haas F1 Team was here, clapping and giving me like an ovation.
“That’s something I was expecting in Abu Dhabi 2020, but I think it was even better today,” summed up Grosjean, who shared the TPC run with F1 TV analyst and former IndyCar racer Hinchliffe. The Canadian had his first chance in a Formula 1 car, for a feature to be aired during US GP weekend.
“First day in a Formula 1 car done,” reflected Hinchcliffe. “What a great day here in Mugello, started out wet. Grosjean was in the car first, he got a lot of laps done and then gave me a bit of advice, as did Ollie and Esteban before I jumped in similar conditions.
“And then luckily the rain stopped and the sun came out and for the very last run of the day, I was able to bolt on some slicks and get a sense of what this thing can do in dry conditions. I am kind of speechless, honestly, at the end of the day which for a guy that talks for a living, that really is saying something.
“Really just incredible experience, an incredible machine, can’t thank everybody at Haas Racing enough. It is a day that I’ll remember for a long time, hopefully I can find a way to do this again sometime because I really enjoyed it, I would love to do it again. But again, can’t thank everybody in the team enough and hopefully you guys enjoyed following it on.”
Here’s videos: https://x.com/HaasF1Team/status/1971498240332963881
https://x.com/HaasF1Team/status/1971501245647954386
https://x.com/HaasF1Team/status/1971594628379160949
https://x.com/F1/status/1971601909070143632
https://x.com/HaasF1Team/status/1971881249347432717
Here’s Haas part of Pirelli F1 test
Here’s Esteban Ocon on Azerbaijan GP