Romain Grosjean successfully underwent hand surgery on Tuesday to aid his recovery from the injuries sustained in his fiery Formula 1 crash in Bahrain last month.
The Bahrain GP is set to go down as Grosjean’s final grand prix, as he will be replaced at Haas for 2021 and has not secured an alternative drive, but he had already made it clear that driving again was “important but not as important as living a normal life for the rest of my life”.
To that end he had opted to return home to Switzerland after a week of treatment and recovery in Bahrain, instead of trying to race in the Abu Dhabi season finale.
Grosjean revealed on Tuesday evening he would undergo surgery on his left hand to repair thumb ligament damage and clean the wounds from the burns he suffered.
He also said his right hand would get treatment after “some early 2020 injury” – which could be the broken hand he secretly suffered during F1’s hiatus this year and only revealed after his Bahrain crash – and said he would be a “new man” afterwards.
Grosjean said late Tuesday night that “everything went well” with his surgery and issued a follow-up on Wednesday morning saying he’d had “a good sleep and not too much pain”.
He joked it was a “bit of a handful writing messages” and wished his followers “a beautiful day”.
Everything went well🙏🙏🙏 thank you all pic.twitter.com/RSKzovLJ9C
— Romain Grosjean (@RGrosjean) December 15, 2020
Before he posted an update on his surgery, Grosjean tweeted a message of support to Williams founder Sir Frank Williams – who it emerged yesterday had been admitted to hospital and was in a stable condition.
“You are such an inspiration for every racer in the world,” Grosjean wrote.
Grosjean had been open about both the crash and his recovery thereafter when he spoke to media including The Race a few days after his accident.
He said doctors had not ruled out a skin graft, which made his return to F1 difficult to judge.
Doctors tried to repair his injured left hand as quickly as possible but Grosjean was told racing would pose a serious risk to his recovery and his long-term health.
He therefore described the decision not to race in Abu Dhabi as “one of the hardest decisions of my life, but it’s obviously one of the wisest”.
It is unclear whether Grosjean will continue racing and in which category. He had been pursuing an IndyCar drive prior to the crash, but admitted he now has second thoughts about racing in America – especially on ovals – with his family back in Europe.
Grosjean had said the worst part of his crash was the anguish he saw it put his family through.
However, Grosjean also indicated he did want to race again, and informed his family of his “selfish” desire to try to compete in Abu Dhabi, which suggests a return to racing in a more familiar environment remains on the cards.
