Romain Grosjean revealed his collision with Valtteri Bottas destroyed the only example of a new specification floor he had set his car up to use.
“It’s basically the latest update from Japan that I never ran,” Grosjean explained. “Kevin [Magnussen] ran [it] in the US, was not happy with it, we’ve made some tweaks to it and brought it for free practice one to get my feedback because we want to learn from the future.“Then in free practice one I thought ‘you know what, I’m quite happy with that floor, that new updates, so let’s carry on with it’. So we did all second practice, we set up the car with the new package.”
But the Haas driver was hit by Bottas’s Mercedes late in the second practice session. “We only had one package,” said Grosjean. “So tomorrow we change the car. We go back to Melbourne-spec.”
“It’s not great because we’ve been working all Friday and we’ve done a really good job. Sixth in first practice, seventh in second practice, best of the rest in both sessions. Yes, the race pace can be improved but we tried different things and I think we know where we could have gone better.
“So we worked all afternoon, all day with one car and now we need to change to go to another package. Yes, Kevin has run it and we’re going to learn from him. But obviously in terms of feeling and so on that one was actually alright. For once it was going smooth.”
[icon2019autocoursempu]Grosjean’s problem will be worsened by the fact final practice at Yas Marina usually takes place in much hotter conditions than qualifying or the race, making it hard to get any representative running done.
“We won’t get anything in in the afternoon because it won’t be the same,” he said. “I guess we’re just going to do our best.”
Bottas accepted responsibility for the collision. The stewards gave him a reprimand.
“They apologised and that’s the most important,” said Grosjean. “He’s made a mistake, it happens. He even said I could have one of his floors, but I’m not sure that’s going to fit on my car! So we’re going to stick with what we know.”
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Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
29th November 2019, 18:59
When the right words are focussed on, you can see that Grosjean isn’t always moaning. fron the footage of Bottas’s onboard, I’d say Bottas has to be pretty much fully responsible for this. Grosjean looked twice and this was while Bottas was behind him. It effectively was a lunge down the inside by Bottas which really isn’t a good thing to be doing here.
Bottas did apologise, and once he had, Grosjean accepted it and didn’t keep moaning. Grosjean appears to moan a lot about his own car, but i feel the praise for it and other comments that help the team out are kept too hidden. They won’t have kept him for nothing. He’s certainly looking good so far this weekend and I think he should have been one of the star performers last time out. that was an excellent weekend, but he had an MGU-K failure which pretty much took him out of what very likely will have been a chance to get far closer to Magnussen in the standings. He’s had a better season IMO anyway so is unlucky to be this far behind.
David BR (@david-br)
29th November 2019, 21:23
Grosjean looked twice and could presumably evaluate from Bottas’s pace that he wanted to get past. Grosjean then went out wide, apparently allowing room for Bottas (that’s what he seemed to be doing) before turning in sharply, leaving zero room. It didn’t make a lot of sense. Why not the precaution of leaving some space in case Bottas tried to pass? Bottas for his part was just as incautious. As various commentators said (and Hamilton implied on the radio) there are some drivers you just shouldn’t presume will take the sensible option, ever.
anon
29th November 2019, 21:44
@david-br, the line that Grosjean took is the normal racing line through that corner, as drivers tend to widen the entry into that corner for a smoother run through that left-right-left complex.
From Grosjean’s point of view, I don’t blame him turning into the corner as normal given that Bottas was a fairly substantial distance behind his car at the start of that incident – why should Grosjean assume that Bottas was going to try and pass him on the inside from so far back, and why should he compromise himself “just in case” Bottas wanted to do something? Out of the two, I would say that Bottas was the one who shoulders more of the blame there.
David BR (@david-br)
30th November 2019, 13:29
@anon Grosjean wasn’t at race pace, though, he was on a slower lap. Add that to the fact he clearly saw Bottas approaching, it made no sense (as there was no need) to keep to the racing line. I’m not saying Bottas wasn’t at fault too. But Grosjean must have known Bottas wanted to pass. He (Bottas) had done the same on Gasly earlier and the latter was cautious enough to allow room.
Xcm
29th November 2019, 23:25
Two is one, and one is none! Is an old racing saying regarding spare parts.
Haas has nobody to blame but themselves over parts shortages, and this game of trying to put blame on anyone but themselves is childish and frankly… LAME. I’m embarrassed for them.
Man up Haas!
T. An American f1 fan.
Yaru (@yaru)
30th November 2019, 3:28
Well it was a new floor that is constantly updated, so I can understand why only have one lying.