Buxton Puzzled by Haas Pulling Grosjean’s Sponsorship: “Why Would You Be Involved in Racing?”

Former Haas driver Romain Grosjean has left F1 to now pursue a new challenge in the NTT IndyCar Series over in North America. He was due to bid farewell to the sport in the 2020 Abu Dhabi GP, but sadly could not, owing to his fiery crash.

The incident in Bahrain shocked everyone, as the VF-20 car split into two halves following a collision into the barrier. But the Frenchman escaped largely unhurt, and thereafter began to focus on his recovery.

Haas F1 boss Gene Haas recently spoke about why he backed out of sponsoring Grosjean’s 2021 IndyCar drive after the driver’s Bahrain GP crash. Building on that, renowned F1 journalist Will Buxton expressed his thoughts and believes Gene’s remarks were ‘odd.’

Can see where Gene Haas was coming from, said Buxton

Speaking in his vlog, Buxton stated, “I think I can see where he was coming from or at least the sort of justification in his own mind. But it’s just odd for a team principal to sort of make those kind of comments.”

Mr. Haas had previously said in an interview that he just could not fund Grosjean to ‘go out and kill himself.’ He had also said that he did not want to even imagine the thought of facing the 34-year-old’s wife and kids, had something more serious happened in Bahrain.

“Because otherwise why would be involved in racing if that wasn’t something you had already kind of made your peace with? Anyway, very odd comments coming out of Gene,” concluded Buxton.

Grosjean recently completed his first IndyCar test with Dale Coyne Racing

Nearly three months after his massive accident, the former Haas driver was back in IndyCar machinery. Grosjean also completed 83 laps in his first testing session at Barber Motorsports Park.

He had recently said to the team’s website, “It felt good to be back in a race car. It really felt like home. It’s obviously a new car and I had to adjust a little bit to my new driving position, but things quickly felt quite smooth.”

The 34-year-old is due to have a few more tests to fully adapt to the team’s open-wheel machinery. Grosjean will race in most of this year’s IndyCar races, which will begin from the third week of April.

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