Only Romain Grosjean will decide if he races in Formula 1 again after his horrific crash at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Haas say.
The French driver was lucky to survive with just a few burns after his car split in half and burst into flames following a high-speed impact into the barrier on the opening lap.
Such was the force of the crash, with early estimates put at 53G, that the survival cell, where Grosjean was sat, became lodged in the Armco, with the Halo almost certainly saving his life as it kept the metal guardrail away from his head.
“Hello everyone, just wanted to say I’m okay, well, sort of okay, thank you very much for all the messages,” Grosjean said in an Instagram post late on Sunday.
“I wasn’t for the Halo some years ago but I think it’s the greatest thing we brought to Formula 1 and without it I wouldn’t be able to speak to you today.
“Thanks to all the medical staff at the circuit, at the hospital, and hopefully I can soon write to you some messages and tell you how it’s going.”
With the injuries less serious than initial thought, it’s quite possible that Grosjean will be fit enough to race again this Sunday in Bahrain, this time on the Outer Circuit.
However, whether or not the 34-year-old father of three will want to take part is another matter.
“That is his decision,” said Haas team boss Guenther Steiner. “I will not let him interfere with that one. He needs to make that one up for himself. I follow his guidance there.
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“I don’t know how he is tomorrow when the bruises come through and maybe he thinks a little bit more about it. I don’t know what someone is thinking after a thing like this.
“That is the reason why I want to give him a little bit of time to think about it, to give us feedback on what he wants to do, and we go from there.
“For sure we have always got a plan in place but at the moment my plan would be, if he is okay, to get [him] back in there in the race in Bahrain next weekend, but we have to wait until tomorrow.”