“There is no way I could have seen Danny being there”- Romain Grosjean says his crash with Daniil Kvyat was aggressive but not crazy.
Romain Grosjean moments before crashing into the barriers at the Bahrain Grand Prix collided with Daniil Kvyat which further diverted him to the steel boundary.
On the team radio, Kvyat before getting concerned for Grosjean, actually complained what was the Haas driver doing. However, Grosjean said that his right turn on the track was aggressive but not reckless as he was unaware of what was coming from behind.
“I had a very good exit out of turn one into turn two,” said the Haas driver in response to a question from RaceFans. “There is no one on my right-hand side at that point.”
“The momentum I carry out of turn three is very good. And there’s a lot of debris and sparks coming on the left-hand side of the track. So I already move a bit to the right.”
Mirrors not great F1 achievement
Grosjean further said that he was at the blindspot and had no idea that Kvyat was nearing him, while he only had the option of going right and build onto the gap upfront.
“Moving to the right, I checked my mirror and there’s nothing, there is no one,” he said. “I’m catching the cars in front of me with a big delta speed. So that means that I am having the momentum, the positive momentum.”
“So if there were anyone next to me, it would have been side-by-side and I would have passed him. That doesn’t happen.” Grosjean admitted he moved “quite aggressively” to the right as he headed for the gap. “I agree that turning right was quite strong.”
“In Bahrain, there’s the racetrack and there is that painted sand colour. So even if you push someone to the right, as we’ve seen with the Mercedes and the Ferrari some years ago, the guy on the inside still has the possibility to move to the right, in the worst-case scenario, to avoid contact. So if you took all the elements, what I did is not crazy.”
I watched the out-board and you can see that Daniil is basically in my blind spot from turn two to where it happens. The whole way he’s completely in my blind spot.
“Mirrors, we know in Formula 1, are not the greatest technology. A night race makes it harder to see in the mirrors, but also in the day, any time of day, there is no way I could have seen Danny being there. So this is all the thinking that drove me to turn right.”
