Toto Wolff has offered Romain Grosjean a test in a world champion Mercedes if the Haas driver cannot fulfill his dream of a comeback at the season finale in Abu Dhabi in a week.
In the first and so far only media round since his fire accident, Grosjean declared that he would definitely like to drive what will probably be the last race of his Formula 1 career if his injuries allow it: “It would be a wonderful story to go to Abu Dhabi” he says.
“If not, I’ll call every single Formula 1 team and ask if someone can give me a private test in January to just do ten to 15 laps for myself.”
For “Motorsport-Total.com” reason enough to ask the Mercedes team boss in his media video conference after qualifying for the Sachir Grand Prix whether he could imagine giving Grosjean a world champion Mercedes for this wish – an older model if necessary, so as not to take away valuable time from the regular drivers during the winter tests in Barcelona.
Wolff’s answer is surprising: “If it is allowed, and if no one from the universe of the teams he drove for can offer him such an opportunity, then we would do it.”
Grosjean has contested 179 grands prix in his Formula 1 career to date. In 2009 he drove after Nelson Piquet jun. seven races for Renault. After a break, he only returned to the premier class in 2012 with Lotus (emerged from Renault). At the end of 2015, he left Lotus for Haas.
But the American Haas team is one of the smallest racing teams in Formula 1. It is unclear whether it can muster the resources to organize a private test especially for Grosjean. Mercedes, on the other hand, holds such tests quite often. In the past, for example, Lance Stroll and Nikita Masepin sat in discarded Silver Arrows.
For now, however, Grosjean’s priority is to contest the race in Abu Dhabi: “The right hand will be one hundred percent ready,” he is optimistic. “And the strength in the left one is getting better and better, and I can move it better from day to day. But it is still quite swollen from the inflammation. That must now go back.”
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