Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsLotus F1

Grosjean crash broke his seat in Sochi

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Romain Grosjean says his heavy accident in the Russian Grand Prix broke the seat in his Lotus.

The Frenchman crashed at Turn 3 having lost control while following Jenson Button closely, hitting the barrier on the outside of the track and bringing out the safety car. With the car heavily damaged, Grosjean has revealed even his seat was broken in the incident.

"I’m feeling pretty good, especially considering the force of the impact; I broke my seat!" Grosjean said. "It was my biggest impact for quite a while and when I knew I was going to hit the wall I took my hands off the wheel, closed my eyes and braced myself.

"It’s a testament to all the safety inherent in the car and the other safety devices, so a little thank you to Bell, HANS, Enstone, the circuit, the FIA and the marshals and medical personnel. Also a big thank you to my crew who had to pick up the pieces and put the car back together."

Lotus technical director James Chester says the incident appears to have been simply caused by a loss of downforce when following another car so closely.

"There is no indication in the data and in the parts that anything broke and subsequently caused the accident," Chester said. "It isn’t easy to draw conclusions in any accident investigation but it looks like Romain was maybe a little bit close to the McLaren and lost some downforce, running out of grip effectively. There is nothing that we can see that makes it a car failure."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.