Romain Grosjean’s name reached beyond motorsport circles last November when he miraculously escaped his burning Haas Formula 1 car at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
And on Sunday, at IndyCar’s second Dual in Detroit, Grosjean once again had to tackle a fiery situation.
The Frenchman stopped on track with a brake fire on his Dale Coyne Racing-run machine and extricated himself before running to find a nearby fire extinguisher in order to tackle the minor blaze.
IndyCar’s safety crew quickly tended to the car, assuring Grosjean that they could deal with the situation, and the Frenchman returned to the paddock, posting a picture of himself wearing a Detroit Fire Department shirt.
The official Twitter account of the Pompiers de France – the French fire service – also got involved in the situation.
“Romain, if you want to be a volunteer firefighter, just go to the closest fire station,” they posted.
“We will welcome you with pleasure… you definitely have all the skills that go well, in addition to being fire resistant!”
Grosjean has referred to himself as ‘The Phoenix’ and ‘fire resistant’ on his social media accounts in the wake of his Bahrain accident.
The exit nonetheless compounded a difficult weekend for Formula 1 convert Grosjean.
Grosjean secured third and fifth in qualifying for the two races but his Race 1 also came to an early end due to an accident.
“I got sandwiched at the race start and I lost a fair bit of positions,” said Grosjean.
“Then we tried to come into the race, but I picked up a drive through penalty and we tried to come back from there.
“Eventually we had a brake fire, and I had to extinguish a fire, but we’re all good here!”
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