“He cannot be alive”: Ayao Komatsu relives the moment Romain Grosjean crashed

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu has reflected on the night Romain Grosjean pulled himself out of his car engulfed in flames during the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix. Still today, the Japanese team chief can't believe his driver survived. 

Promoted to team principal ahead of the 2024 Formula 1 season, Komatsu has been successful in taking the reins of the American team. For years before this, however, he worked closely with Grosjean - even when both men were at Lotus and fighting for podiums.

In 2016, both moved to Haas when the American outfit came to fruition, with Komatsu taking the role of trackside engineering director. 

Through these years, the two had formed a strong bond - something that made watching the crash in Bahrain even more difficult. 

“Very first instance I didn't know it was Romain, right?" he said on the High Performance podcast. "And then the minute I realised it was Romain, obviously I'm thinking ‘he cannot be alive’. He's my friend, you know? He's my racing driver, but he's my friend,” he said, voice trembling.

"That felt like an eternity. And I actually didn't see him get out of the car walking. And then one of the race engineers said on the intercom, ‘No, no, Romain’s out. Romain’s out.’”

Sat on the pitwall, he wasn't able to communicate with his driver, but eventually saw evidence of the miraculous recovery on the TV screens. 

“Then I went to see him before he got airlifted to the hospital. I managed to catch a glimpse of him and he gave me a thumbs up. He was in the medical centre. I was just outside and then the guy at the medical centre just let me in to a certain point and then he saw me and he gave me a thumbs up. ‘OK, he's alive,’ right?”

“And then we've done the race and then Kevin hasn't physically seen him. It sounds stupid but we are both the same. Kevin said to me like, he still cannot believe Romain’s alive. So, he said that we need to go to the hospital to see him. I was the same.

Fire marshals attend an inferno after Romain Grosjean, Haas VF-20, crashed heavily on the opening lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix. The race was stopped. Romain Grosjean, Haas F1, is escorted away on the left of the picture

“The reason I went to see him before he got airlifted to the hospital was even though I saw it on TV, I just still couldn't comprehend that he's alive. I just wanted to - I needed to see him in my own eyes that he's alive and then let his wife know that, ‘look I've seen him, he's alive.’”

The chassis split in half when it hit the barrier after contact with Danil Kvyat. Now, it's housed in the Formula 1 Exhibition in Vienna, but those who recovered the car at the time had one complaint: “Completely the smell," Komatsu said. "Horrible. Absolutely horrible. 

"That butyl rubber burning smell is just horrible. And then looking at that chassis tub, you cannot imagine somebody can come out of this alive. It's horrible.

“And then when the chassis came back, there's still Romain's racing shoes stuck behind the pedal," he added.

“So his left foot, so he was in the car, he tried to pull himself out. He got to a certain stage and he realised his left foot is stuck behind the pedal. So he had to then bring himself back down so that he can grip something and gain power to pull his leg out. So when he did that of course his foot come off the racing shoes.

“So racing shoes is still stuck in the cockpit behind the pedal and then he put his left hand in the flame of fire in the halo and then pushed himself and came out.”

The French-Swiss driver managed to jump from the car with burns to his hands after the 67G crash. But despite this, he was still able to walk away from the wreck, proving to his family that he was alive and well. These days, he acts as a reserve driver for Prema Racing in IndyCar.