Romain Grosjean has announced that he will not take part in the season finale at Abu Dhabi next weekend, which was also set to be his final race with the Haas F1 Team and probably his last ever Formula One grand prix.
Grosjean described it as “one of the hardest decisions” of his life, but said it was “better I don’t take the risk to race in Abu Dhabi” as it was the “best one for my future.”
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“It is with great sadness that I will not be able to do my final race in Abu Dhabi and be with the team there,” the outgoing Haas driver said in a social media post.
“We’ve tried as much as we could with the doctor to recover and to repair my hand, but the risk of racing is too big for my recovery and my health. So, the decision was made that I’m not going to race.
“It’s one of the hardest decisions of my life, but it’s obviously one of the wisest. I will miss the team, but I will be supporting them as ever,” the Frenchman added.
Romain Grosjean was discharged from hospital in Bahrain earlier this week after suffering a dramatic, fiery crash at last weekend’s race at Sakhir.
He was lucky to escape the incident with only mild burns to his hands, and he will now return home to Switzerland to continue his recovery.
Haas reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi was called up to replace Grosjean at this weekend’s Sakhir Grand Prix – and it has been confirmed that he will be racing the Frenchman’s car again at the season finale.
It had been speculated that Haas may choose to run Mick Schumacher, who they recently signed on a multi-year deal for 2021.
In a statement reacting to the Frenchman’s update, Haas team principal Guenther Steiner said:
“I’m naturally very sorry that Romain will miss what was going to be his final race with Haas F1 Team.
“But we are all in agreement that he has to take the best course of action regarding his treatment and recovery from last Sunday’s incident.
“Romain has shown exceptional bravery and amazing spirit over the last few days – we know how badly he wanted to be able to return to the cockpit of the VF-20 in Abu Dhabi. And we all would have loved him to have been there too,” Steiner concluded.
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