Grosjean: “I was convinced I was ready when I came in and I wasn’t”

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In the round-up: Romain Grosjean said he is a “very, very different” driver to when he first arrived in the sport with Renault in 2009, in the European Grand Prix.

What they say

Grosjean was responding to report he and Haas team mate Kevin Magnussen will be replaced by an all-rookie line-up for the 2021 F1 season:

Obviously in my days we were probably a little bit less prepared than the drivers are nowadays. The young categories got really more professional. So I think it’s not easy to compare.

The only thing I can say is that I was convinced I was ready when I came in and I wasn’t. And obviously I paid a heavy price at the beginning after 2009.

But I’m very much different [now]. I know exactly where we need to bring the car before the weekend. I know how to drive it, how to get the best out of it when it’s not going the way you want it. That’s really making a lot of difference.

But also rookies need to have their chance in Formula 1. I’ve been here for 10 years, blocking kind of a seat for 10 years, and if the team goes for two rookies well, good for them, and I wish them the best.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

Many readers criticised F1’s decision to hold a race in Saudi Arabia next year:

Well, for one thing I do not think that F1 should go to Saudi Arabia at all. An (at best) medieval approach to basic human rights and the outrageous killing of Jamal Khashoggi should tell any decent organization, sporting or other, to give that a very wide berth.

But, to answer the question as asked. No, I do not in any way believe that F1 can or will be a positive force. On the contrary, it will let itself be abused to legitimize what the regime stands for.

On top of that I find it highly embarrassing that F1 not only decides to disregard all principles and cynically go for the money, but then insult anyone listening by sanctimoniously claiming that they are doing it for something good. At least stand by the cynicism.
Bob C.

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Author information

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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14 comments on “Grosjean: “I was convinced I was ready when I came in and I wasn’t””

  1. Spot on CoTD!

    1. What about human rights in europe?

  2. F1 already holds races in Russia and China, why Saudi Arabia is targeted specifically I don’t understand.

    1. Don’t worry. After it’s been on the calendar for a while everyone will just accept it and start focusing on the next terrible thing that F1 does.
      Same as always. Temporary outrage – but not enough to stop people watching and supporting F1.

    2. Those countries are far from great, but Saudi Arabia is even worse. It is one of the most barbaric states in existence in the modern world, and buys everyone’s complicity with a river of oil money.

  3. Although a fan, F1 is hardly a positive force anywhere except in the world of the privileged. it’s a pro sport and like all pro sports it has a multitude of problems. Too much money being one of them.

  4. The COTD is of course correct but until we evolve as a species to a point where we actually become civilised enough to genuinely care about other beings this will carry on. We only need to look to the US election results to see that over 70 million people actually voted to keep a misogynistic homophobic racist psychopathic want to be dictator in control.
    We have a long long way to go.

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      7th November 2020, 20:28

      Still lost though! Today has been a good day!

  5. COTD is entirely correct of course.

    There is a heated debate going on about this but my overriding point is that this race in Saudi is NOT necessary. There are plenty of other places F1 could go.

    It’s a bad decision. The end.

  6. I watched Grosjean’s iRacing stream yesterday and it only took him half a lap to crash.

    iRacing truly is incredibly realistic.

  7. Grosjean has how many years and he still is an average driver at best

  8. Half the drivers are below average, so he’d possibly be quite happy with that.

  9. Saudi Arabia was criticised for being closed off to the world

    Yeah, nobody ever said that. You were criticized for very, very different reasons.

Comments are closed.