Romain Grosjean: Champ or Chump?

[phil1993]

So, another poor race for Romain Grosjean.

He's taken 3 podiums, beaten Kimi in qualifying but woeful on occasion. Here's my thoughts...
http://www.f1zone.net/news/how-do-you-s ... ean/16076/

[Zack]

Romain Grosjean is a mix, for sure he has speed to win but fails to deliver. As you wrote in article, he is repeating the mistakes. That is certainly is not interesting. Lotus will probably drop him for 2013 but total sponsorship might be just save him.

[François]

Another serious brain fade today, yet somehow I don't want to hate on him. He's not like your stereotypical F1 villain: temperamental, arrogant, over ambitious and unapologetic. He's cool and collected, understands he's a rookie with a lot left to learn and sensibly apologises for his (arguably numerous) mistakes.

He's an excellent qualifier and usually fares quite well in the races provided he doesn't hit trouble early on. Before the Spa disaster, he's had a few brilliant starts, not to mention overtaking moves judged to perfection (on the likes of Hamilton). He was damn good in GP2 where keeping your car intact among a pack of reckless youngsters is half the job.

His start (and entire race) in Singapore seemed to have shown he had learned his lesson after Spa. I think he'll see today as a somewhat painful reminder that every start is a different challenge and he shouldn't take anything for granted, and he'll be back even stronger. Sure, this looks silly and comes at the worst possible time for him, but I genuinely think he's headed in the right direction and will soon be out of trouble provided he doesn't let all that negative attention get to him.

He's basically gotten them all out of the way now. Between over ambitiousness and over cautioness, misjudging lateral gaps, misjudging grip in the wet and misjudging closing speeds to the car in front... oh, a jump start maybe, he hasn't done that yet. Seriously, there's only so many different mistakes you can make at the start. He is learning from them, slowly but surely. He'll be past this tough phase very soon.

[phil1993]

I also almost think today was worse than Spa. It was just comical. Spa was a flick at the start, very stupid, but Alonso has done it to a rival twice this season.

[donald29]

Spa you could say he had poor spacial awareness and was over-aggressive cutting across Lewis. Same with a couple of other incidents. Today was again woeful spacial awareness, but it wasn't over-aggression. He was too preoccupied with not colliding with the Sauber he just forgot about and drove into Webber. It wasn't him trying to race to turn 3 like Webber said.

It was stupid and his fault, but I do feel a bit sorry for him. His mind must be in a terrible place and today it led to a collision. Jackie Stewart offered to mentor him, I don't know if he's the answer but Lotus have to do something to get his head straight. I think today could have destroyed his confidence, certainly judging his demeanour after the race.

The thing with him is I like how happy he is to be in F1. After being there and losing his seat he really appreciates racing in F1 again, you can see how happy he is. That's great to see, it's a shame he's had all these incidents.

I can't claim credit for compiling this, but here it is. The Grosjean List:

Europe 2009 - collision with Badoer - first lap
Italy 2009 - contact which damaged wing - first lap
Belgium 2009 - crashed into Button - first lap
Australia 2012 - didn't back off when Maldonado had line - second lap
Malaysia 2012 - collision with Schumacher - first lap
Spain 2012 - contact with Perez - first lap
Monaco 2012 - collision with Schumacher - first lap
Britain 2012 - contact with Di Resta - first lap
Germany 2012 - ran off the track, took out Senna, Massa - first lap,
Belgium 2012 - collision with Hamilton, Alonso - first lap
Japan 2012 - collision with Webber - first lap

[KevC]

The first lap is where he's making his mistakes but I'm sure you could draw up a similar collision list for a lot of other drivers. The Caterham, Williams and Toro guys are often in the pits at the end of lap1 for a new nose.

[donald29]

Interesting line from James Allen.

Because race starts are an instinctive moment, many ex-drivers in the paddock argue that this is not something that can be trained into him.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/10/c ... -incident/

[Treacle]

I still stick to my point, that if it hadn't been for his collisions, Lotus would be ahead of Ferrari in the constructor's. Because he IS fast.
But if I were in Lotus's shoes, I wouldn't know what to do, for reasons Phil mentioned in his article and the point James Allen raised. Which would be more profitable: to make a slower (but more reliable) driver faster, or to make Romain more reliable? Or rather, can he be made more reliable...

[KevC]

As I've said before, I don't think ALL of those incidents were HIS fault. Some were just things that happen. Silverstone certainly comes to mind (and wasn't very different to Kimi/Alonso at Japan today). I think he clearly needs to focus more at the start but I don't think another ban is the right answer. He needs more practice at it, not less.

[François]

I agree, calls for another ban are disproportionate and there is no way it's going to happen. He's served his Spa ban and a pretty harsh stop/go penalty in the Suzuka race (repeat offense presumably played a part in that). He was neither on some kind of probation nor any suspended ban, he only took one car out not resulting in a retirement and no championship contender was involved.

Plus, I frankly think that this time, the sheer embarrassment is punishment enough and will teach him more than any ban ever could.

[tderias]

Germany 2012 - ran off the track, took out Senna, Massa - first lap,

Pretty sure in Germany Massa ran into the back of a Toro Rosso by his own merit. He did collide with Massa later throughout the first lap but only because Massa was substantially slow off the corner because of losing his front wing. The incident didn't harm anyone's race either apart from his own. I do agree with this though:

Interesting line from James Allen.

Because race starts are an instinctive moment, many ex-drivers in the paddock argue that this is not something that can be trained into him.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/10/c ... -incident/

Spacial awareness and that 'sixth sense' - if you like - of the environment around you is very difficult to be taught.

[mikhailv]

Problem is he has already had a race ban.... then still does it. The only next move would be to harshly remove his superlicence.

If I was lotus, id just save all the tyres and start in the pitlane with him every race. Free strategy, no collisions at the start, and they have nothing but gains as he gets through turn 1 safely.

[donald29]

Germany 2012 - ran off the track, took out Senna, Massa - first lap,

Pretty sure in Germany Massa ran into the back of a Toro Rosso by his own merit. He did collide with Massa later throughout the first lap but only because Massa was substantially slow off the corner because of losing his front wing. The incident didn't harm anyone's race either apart from his own. I do agree with this though:

Yeah he did, but as you say then Grosjean unnecessarily drove into Massa when Massa had no front wing. Didn't harm Massa, but Grosjean stupidly ruined his own race.

[mileso]

Romain has to go back to driver's school. Lotus needs to be fined AND penalized for not preparing their driver well enough to race F1. Every team that Grosjean hits and takes out of a race needs to get a monetary recompense from Lotus. THe FIA needs to start taking points away from both Lotus and Grosjean.
Everybody is pointing their finger at the driver but the Lotus team keeps putting him in the car and on the track. It's a bad choice being made by Lotus.
Where is the fabulous KIMI who should be mentoring his team mate?
If it's sponsor money that is keeping Grosjean behind the wheel then big fines will cause a rethink.

[iceman1]

Watching all the accidents in 2 minutes and a half made me sick


Grosjean should relax and open his eyes on all the cars around him