Romain Grosjean returns to GP2 with DAMS

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Romain Grosjean, Renault, Valencia, 2009

Romain Grosjean will return to GP2 in 2011 with the DAMS team.

He raced in the series in 2008 and 2009 before being briefly promoted to Renault’s F1 team.

After losing his F1 seat to Vitaly Petrov in 2010, Grosjean briefly returned to GP2 last year, standing in for Jerome d’Ambrosio at DAMS.

Grosjean finished fourth in his only full season of GP2 in 2008, behind Giorgio Pantano, Bruno Senna and Lucas di Grassi.

Jolyon Palmer, son of former F1 driver Jonathan Palmer, will make his debut in GP2 this year driving for Arden.

Image © Renault/LAT

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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21 comments on “Romain Grosjean returns to GP2 with DAMS”

  1. hes back in GP. You mean GP2.

  2. Seems Renault and Genii think he should be given a real chance to make it. It shows how bad an idea it was to get in the car during the year.

    1. Bad idea to get him in the R29 but mostly to not let him race in 2010 after only 7 races in a bad car.

  3. Giorgio Pantano anyone?

    Even if he wins the series – who will pick him up?

    1. Hey, it worked for Glock – made it to F1 in 2004, didn’t work out for him, went to Champcars and the back to GP2 in 2006-2007, won the title and then made it to F1 again with Toyota.

      I think Grosjean can do better than he showed in his time at Renault. I think, like Glock, he went to F1 a bit too early first time round and I still think he will come back to F1 and do a lot better second time.

    2. Pantano has had his chance in F1 and he was god awful. Hopefully no one will pick him up.

      1. not just that, he was in F3000 before his F1 season. So he didn’t spend four, but seven seasons in F1’s main feeder series. Any comparison with him is unfair because he really had his chance.

  4. YUS! I’ve been hopping for this, he was too good not to get his chance, now START FINDING SOME SPONSERS MATE, you’ll need them next year.

    Hope he wins the title.

  5. Love GP2…youtube will be full of crashes

  6. ALways fealt he never got a fair chance. Here’s hoping for him to do well.

    1. Ouch, my English is worst than ever on this comment. Sorry about that

  7. I didn’t think he got a fair shot first time around.
    If he is worthy, I hope he performs in GP2 and get’s a proper chance in F1 this time.

  8. He really needs a strong top 3 championship finish this year if he wants to get back into F1 ahead of the moneybags.

    I like the guy, hope he gets another shot at F1.

  9. This could be a change for Grosjean to prove himself again, but I fear and expect that F1 grid to stay largely the same next season. But where would Grosjean fit back in if he wanted to be in F1 in 2012?

    Mclaren, Mercedes and Ferrari are locked out due to contracted drivers, plus I doubt they’re interested in him. Same applies for Red Bull. Sauber have Perez’s millions and a great talent in Kobayashi, Force India will most likely retain di Riesta and Sutil (should he not go to Mercedes as some have tipped). Renault will probably try and retain Kubica. If Petrov fails to impress than I’m sure the second seat will be for a pay driver. Williams is a possibility I’d guess. Maldanado is probably safe and if Barrichello is still game, he’ll probably stick around for another year. Toro Rosso is probably locked out to Ricciardo and one of Buemi, Algusuari or Olivery Turvey.

    That leaves Lotus, Virgin and HRT, (or possibly a 13th team). Would he really go for one of those seats? Virgin and HRT are likely to be back markers, and although Team Lotus will probably have made some time up on the rest of the pack, I dont think they’ll be massively quick.

    If Grosjean had a few million euros in a nice big pot to give to a team for a drive, I’m sure he’d have a seat in F1 this year, but I get the impression he hasnt.

    Of course I am theorising that he does indeed want to return to F1. Perhaps he’ll just stick around in GP2 for a little while…

    1. Not to mention Senna, Chandhok, De La Rosa, Heidfeld, DiGrassi, Hülkenberg, and probably Liuzzi will all be looking for seats, as well as whoever wins the GP2 championship this year. Hopefully for Grosjean it’s him. Esteban Gutierez who’s just entering GP2 this year also already has a reserve seat with Sauber, and Telmex money behind him, so if anything it’s gonna be harder to find a seat next year than this year.

  10. Grosjean has made a couple of poor career moves; remember he was close to Alonso’s pace early on at Renault, then faded as he made mistakes and lost confidence.
    He’s certainly better than Petrov, D’Ambrosio and Maldonado (and a few others) in my opinion. Needs to win it this season though, and convincingly.

  11. I’m going to watch GP2 now more then ever with Grosjean as my favorite!

    (still a great name DAMS, it’s just sounding great.)

    1. What channel is gp2 broadcast in the uk?

  12. Oh well, good luck to him. I don’t think F1 lost anything more than another journeyman or good #2, but I’m very happy for Romain to prove me wrong. Besides, he has such a great name.

  13. He did a good enough job given the opportunity he was given.But like Glock this may be is opportunity to return to F1 if he performs well.So may be that is a good move.

  14. He’ll struggle to win the title with DAMS unfortunately. But he’ll be fast and will hopeully re-assert himself again. GP2 is very much a pay your way series, just like half of F1, so this is good news though.

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