Sebastian Vettel was one of the first to visit Romain Grosjean in hospital after his fiery Bahrain GP crash, and told the Frenchman to “go home and rest”.
Grosjean suffered a horrific accident at last year’s Bahrain Grand Prix, the Haas driver crashing into a barrier at speed, his car splitting in two and bursting into flames.
28 seconds later he climbed from the wreckage, miraculously suffering only a few burns and a torn tendon in his left thumb.
He was taken to hospital for immediate treatment, visited the next morning by Vettel.
But while Grosjean was keen to get back in the car immediately, Vettel, also a father of three, urged him to go home and be with his family.
“On Monday, November 30, I woke up at six in the morning,” he said in his autobiography, ‘La Mote En Face’, written by the driver and his journalist wife Marion Grosjean.
“Someone arrived very early and in a rather unexpected way: Sebastian Vettel. He was worried about me.
“Seb is probably the driver that I feel closest to. He is living the same life as me with his three children and wants to protect that life as much as possible.
“When I told him I wanted to race the last race he said, ‘No, you need to go home and rest!’
“I explained to him that it was the end of my career and that I did not want to end this way.”
