Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, Baku City Circuit, 2018

Grosjean “doesn’t look great” after first-lap crash – Hulkenberg

2018 Spanish Grand Prix

13th May 2018, 14:533rd June 2018, 11:39 | Written by Keith Collantine

Nico Hulkenberg says Romain Grosjean has some homework to do after a first-lap crash eliminated both drivers and Pierre Gasly.

Grosjean lost control of his car on the outside of turn three and spun into the chasing field with his rear wheels spinning. Hulkenberg and Gasly collected the Haas.

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“I just got crashed into,” Hulkenberg told the BBC. “Obviously we saw that Romain spun and he came back into the track. I couldn’t go anywhere, couldn’t avoid him unfortunately and he took the back end of my car off and that’s the end of my afternoon.”

“He doesn’t look great in that particular scenario,” Hulkenberg continued. “But generally he likes spinning a lot during the weekend but lap one is not a good timing to do it with all the cars around.

“I think he’s got to look at it and got some homework do for himself.”

Grosjean suffered the heaviest impact of the three drivers and was taken to the Medical Centre for a precautionary check.

The Haas driver explained how he lost control of his car to his team on the radio. “I tried the outside, Kevin [Magnussen] lost it a bit and then I got dirty air,” he said.

Grosjean has been summoned by the stewards concerning the incident.

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Keith Collantine

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30 comments on “Grosjean “doesn’t look great” after first-lap crash – Hulkenberg”

hunocsi (@hunocsi)
13th May 2018, 15:02

My question is how did Gasly crash into Grosjean? He clearly saw that Grosjean was coming across the road from the left, and he tried to avoid him from the right, where Grosjean was going…
1. KaIIe (@kaiie)
  13th May 2018, 16:01
  
  Yeah, Gasly clearly forgot the old saying to aim where the car is, because by the time you get there, it has moved off your line.
2. David BR (@david-br)
  13th May 2018, 16:07
  
  Because all drivers bar Grosjean would have taken the decision not to apply the throttle and continue careering across a track that, it was fairly reasonable to presume, other cars would be using. Being a F1 race start and all.
  1. dex022 (@dex022)
    13th May 2018, 16:12
    
    +1
3. Sonics (@sonicslv)
  13th May 2018, 16:22
  
  @hunocsi It happened just under few seconds under heavy smoke too. We have the luxury of focusing to Grosjean cars with several replays while Gasly just have one chance to see/analyze it and worrying about other cars around him too. I’d say he thought he go really deep inside the corner is enough to avoid a car spinning outside the corner but it just wasn’t.
4. spoutnik (@spoutnik)
  13th May 2018, 16:42
  
  @hunocsi I think it is linked to what Hulkenberg was saying. It is like Grosjean tried desperately to rejoin while it was not possible and he crossed the track when he should have stayed on the runoff instead.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
13th May 2018, 15:10

“But generally he likes spinning a lot during the weekend but lap one is not a good timing to do it with all the cars around.”

Nice burn. Justified as well, unless evidence comes out that it was some mechanical failure.

My question is how did Gasly crash into Grosjean?

@hunocsi – IIRC, Gasly was perfectly in line with Grosjean, and hemmed in by a car on the left. Gasly moved right to avoid, but with Grosjean pulling a 180, that movement wasn’t enough. I guess all the tyre smoke didn’t help either.
1. anon
  13th May 2018, 16:40
  
  @phylyp, mind you, it does come across as a slightly ironic comment for Hulkenberg to make given that Hulkenberg threw his car into a barrier in the previous race, so he’s not exactly faultless either.
  1. Phylyp (@phylyp)
    13th May 2018, 17:32
    
    Yeah, people in glass houses :-)
    
    That said, at least the Hulk punted the barrier in race conditions, and not under the SC :-D
  2. Aaditya (@neutronstar)
    13th May 2018, 17:42
    
    @anon The irony is not as great as you might think. Despite his crash in Baku, Hulkenberg is still widely accepted as a far more consistent and less error-prone driver than Grosjean and that is supported even by their recent results. I think he is in a position to safely make this type of a comment, and he is not wrong about Grosjean’s habit of spinning either.
Franton (@franton)
13th May 2018, 15:11

I’m wondering how Grosjean has a drive still? He’s been intermittently good, and more often than not downright dangerous. Smoking tyres trying to rejoin? Hell even in a road car that ends in calamity.
1. Phylyp (@phylyp)
  13th May 2018, 17:36
  
  @franton – I think he looks bad because in 2018 he has been shown to be performing inconsistently/poorly when compared to the vastly improved car, and the one race he looked good, the pit crew messed up.
  
  However, if you look back to past seasons, Haas had a nightmare time getting their braking (and for a while the brake-by-wire system) dialed in correctly – so at that time people cut him some slack going by his past results, such as his 2013 season and the initial few races with Haas.
  1. Franton (@franton)
    13th May 2018, 17:50
    
    @phylyp He looks bad because over the course of his F1 career he’s had a lot of crashes. Quick list of the crashes he’s directly responsible for and not including where he was the victim.
    
    2012: Spa, Japan, Abu Dhabi first lap crashes, Brazil crash in practice.
    2013: One crash per practice session Monaco 2013. 1st lap crash with Mark Webber at British GP.
    2014: Hungary … spun and crashed while following the safety car.
    2015: Malaysia, spun and contacted Sergio Perez. Spain, contacted Pastor Maldonaldo. Canada, contacted Will Stevens. Britain contact between him Danny Ric and Pastor Maldonaldo.
    2016: first clean season where he didn’t cause anything
    2017: Russian GP, collided with Jolyon Palmer.
    2018: Spanish GP … you know the rest.
    
    He’s improving, if you count less and less crashes as that however he’s still colliding more with other drivers than anyone else in F1 right now.
    1. Phylyp (@phylyp)
      13th May 2018, 17:57
      
      2014: Hungary … spun and crashed while following the safety car.
      
      Heh, so Baku wasn’t his first SC crash?
      
      When you list it out like that, it does look pretty damning. Let’s see if Dieter gets a word out of Guenther Steiner about this incident, it’s usually been informative hearing his views.
    2. Mike
      13th May 2018, 18:34
      
      You are forgetting Brazil formation lap, granted it was raining but still come on man, he is enough of a seasoned driver that he shouldn’t be making so many rookie mistakes.
Jere (@jerejj)
13th May 2018, 15:53

Grosjean should realize when to give up attempting to get back to the circuit too eagerly, LOL.
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
13th May 2018, 16:05

The excuses are drying up for Romain. Baku was Ericsson’s fault, Barcelona was his teammate’s fault. It seems to be an instinctive reaction for him. I think Haas should pull him out of the seat by the French GP, if he continues to underperform. Luckily for Grosjean, Maini and Ferrucci are nowhere near ready to get a race seat, but Ferrari might coax them into putting Giovinazzi in the car.
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
13th May 2018, 16:12

So Kevin “lost it” and you didn’t? You were just an innocent party who got “dirty air”…. why doesn’t he accept responsibility?
Hugh (@hugh11)
13th May 2018, 16:28

Why he pumped back onto the accelerator into the middle of about 10 cars I have no idea… Just completely stupid. Wait for everyone to go past then carry on, and we’d have had 3 more cars in the race fighting for points. Yet again he seemingly has no idea what to do behind the wheel.
1. spoutnik (@spoutnik)
  13th May 2018, 16:45
  
  @hugh11 Exactly. I would not be surprised if the stewards consider it as a dangerous maneuver and hand penalty points.
Rich07
13th May 2018, 16:30

Leclerk for Grosjean, you read it here first
1. Matteo (@m-bagattini)
  13th May 2018, 17:04
  
  This would be amazing
Neil (@neilosjames)
13th May 2018, 16:35

The mistake itself was excusable because he was definitely affected by Magnussen’s wobble and I think a lot of drivers would have either gone wide from there, or spun.

But I just can’t work out what he was trying to do by keeping the throttle planted. My best guess is that he wasn’t quite sure where he was, and did it to try to keep himself out of the gravel trap… which is a bit worrying.
1. Phylyp (@phylyp)
  13th May 2018, 17:10
  
  My best guess is that he wasn’t quite sure where he was, and did it to try to keep himself out of the gravel trap… which is a bit worrying.
  
  @neilosjames – yeah, that’s hardly the stuff of top 20 drivers in the world.
Krommenaas (@krommenaas)
13th May 2018, 17:12

These drivers have contracts you know. You don’t just throw someone out when you want to. Look how hard it was for Renault to get rid of Palmer last year.
Dennis
13th May 2018, 19:42

Hulk is a bull in a china shop at times himself so he should keep quiet.
He talks like he is a top tier driver – he’s not.
Anthony Offen-James
14th May 2018, 11:58

Grosjean is a horror show , he couldn’t drive a shopping trolley and shouldn’t be allowed to carry on causing so many incidents .He just isn’t good enough
Esteban
14th May 2018, 20:42

With that helmet design, Hulkenberg can burn whomever he wants.
Dave
3rd June 2018, 8:51

Kevin got his revenge on you, Hulk. Take that.
Dave
27th December 2020, 6:03

Romain Flopjean