Romain Grosjean, Haas, Circuit de Catalunya, 2019

Grosjean: Haas team orders will favour whichever driver is quicker

2019 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Romain Grosjean says Haas will impose team orders on a case-by-case basis in order to minimise the risk of collisions between its drivers.

Haas is imposing limits on how Grosjean and team mate Kevin Magnussen can race each other following three collisions between the pair this year. This included one on the first lap at Silverstone which led to the retirement of both drivers.

Grosjean said the team will favour whichever driver is quicker when the pair meet while racing.

“There is no number one or number two in the team so it will really depend the situation on track,” he said.

“If one car is clearly faster than the other one the slow one will have the call to not hold the other one, I believe. As long as we do it in the interest of the team, we’re happy.”

Grosjean said he is prepared to following the instructions and his team mate also has no concerns over how it will work. “We’ll deal with the team orders when they come and if they come,” said Magnussen. “Not really worried about it.”

However Magnussen continued to stress the drivers had been unfortunate that their Silverstone collision had resulted in a double retirement. He said the team orders “are there because we had an incident in Silverstone where we lost both cars in the race because of the contact between me and my team mate.”

“I think that’s what they want to avoid, any consequences like this. But I’ve said many times I don’t think there’s been a big problem, just a bit unlucky to have such big consequences.”

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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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9 comments on “Grosjean: Haas team orders will favour whichever driver is quicker”

  1. Grosjean said the team will favour whichever driver…er… whichever Grosjean is quicker when the pair meet while racing.

    Fixed for accurate heat of the moment expression.

  2. *clearly faster ”
    We’ll hear arguments over that one…

  3. @jimmi-cynic why not whichever Magnussen?…It seems that in your willingness to liken the two, you’ve unwittingly shown your bias for chefs…

    1. @neutronstar, at this point in the season, in the six races where both Haas drivers have finished the race, Grosjean has finished ahead of Magnussen 5 times, whereas Magnussen has currently only finished ahead of Grosjean once.

      1. I thought there was a joke in Jimmi Cynic’s comment about both drivers’ shared affinity for collisions…

      2. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
        3rd August 2019, 13:20

        Yea as crazy as it sounds, i would say Grosjean is having a slightly better season than his team mates. the points really don’t show that. But in terms of bad luck with reliability and problems with the car, Grosjean has been the most unlucky driver this year. of the races we have seen, we have seen magnussen seriously underperform relative to Grosjean on at least 2 occasions. Don’t think it has been the other way round at any point.

        1. @thegianthogweed I hope your reply was to anon alone, and not a result of taking my comment too seriously (like anon). :p

          1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
            3rd August 2019, 19:50

            yea it was in reply to anon and just making a point that I think Grosjean has looked better overall.

  4. Oh, no! The devil’s horn logo is seen on that car!! Run, Keith, run, the courts’ll be after you! Not to mention the bearded monster*.

    * Oh dear, I’ve gone and done it, now Monster Energy’ll serve me with a legal notice.

Comments are closed.