Romain Grosjean trades wheels for wings before the 2023 season as he was “bored of waiting at the airport”
Romain Grosjean talked about earning his new flying license after spending the entire IndyCar off-season gaining lessons for becoming a pilot.
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He has played with fire before, but now, he will play with air–Romain Grosjean wants to tame all the elements as the IndyCar driver has now obtained the title of a newly licensed pilot. The Frenchman, who was involved in one of the most dangerous crashes in present history of Formula 1 at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix, literally jumped out of a burning car to save himself after his Haas caught fire as a result of the accident. This had earned him the name of “The Phoenix”.
Thanks to his pilot’s license, Romain Grosjean will be able to take on a different element this time–air. He said that his dream of becoming a pilot was many years in the making, and now he is happy he spent the entire off-season neck-deep in aviation training. He had started taking online classes in August of last year, and he had quickly captured the lessons because of his racing background. He has earned his license for multiengine planes after completing a whopping 115 hours of flight time.
At 36 years of age, Romain Grosjean has said that he wanted to get a pilot’s license at 30, but it was impossible at that time because of Europe’s complicated licensing process. Now, he has moved to Miami, where he lives with his family, and his dreams were tickled once again when he saw his now-former IndyCar teammate Alexander Rossi, who is a licensed pilot, fly to some of the 2022 races.
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Romain Grosjean shares a funny memory from flying near one of the tracks where he has raced
While collecting his hours in the air, Romain Grosjean had to land twice at the Albert Whitted Airport. The primary runway of the Florida airport doubles as the front straightaway on the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg street course, a known location for the IndyCar races. Grosjean said, “Just to land on the start-finish line, that was pretty cool. The air traffic control guy was like, “Yeah, left on Acre Five, turn, and then back. I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s the last corner of the racetrack, I’ll take it and go back to the pit lane. He was like, ‘Oh, yeah, yeah, that’s true.’” Of course, Grosjean knows the track like the back of his hand as he has raced in it.
In the upcoming season, Romain Grosjean will be seen racing in the IndyCar series under Andretti Autosport, with a new teammate–Colton Herta. The Phoenix is all-excited to be able to fly to most of his races by himself now as he has gotten his pilot’s license now, and he does not have to wait at the airport as he has claimed he got “bored of waiting”.
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Riddhi Mondal
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