FIA race director Charlie Whiting has responded to Romain Grosjean’s complaint about his French Grand Prix penalty by explaining the stewards’ reasoning in greater detail.
Grosjean said yesterday he was “shocked” he received a five-second penalty for his collision with Esteban Ocon on the approach to turn one at Paul Ricard. The Haas driver described the decision as “absolute nonsense”.
The FIA presented footage of the first-lap incident to media including RaceFans at the Red Bull Ring today. It shows Grosjean first edging Ocon towards the blue run-off area on their left-hand side as they approached the corner, then making a final move towards the Force India which caused contact between the pair.Grosjean said he was moving in response to Charles Leclerc who was on his right. The footage shows Leclerc was moving left towards Grosjean but does not indicate the two were close to making contact.
Whiting pointed out the footage had been considered by the stewards when making their decision.
“Obviously they also saw onboard camera footage from both cars,” he said. “Again it was very clear from both of those what had happened.
“From all the camera footage it was very clear that it was only the Haas car that actually moved and caused the contact.
“They were racing hard, that’s fine, they were almost alongside. Esteban had been forced onto the blue stuff, this sort of thing happens, no problem with that.
“But this final little push we felt was unnecessary.”
Whiting added he is prepared to discuss the subject further if it is raised at the drivers’ briefing.
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javier javier (@j3d89)
29th June 2018, 17:46
grossjean needs to go, give the seat to charles and ferrari sign perez or hulk
NS Biker (@rekibsn)
29th June 2018, 18:13
Agreed with both …. would be good for CL and likely for the Ferrari B Team too. Or is that the H Team.
Just look at the relative performance of the Hass and the Sauber cars, then count up the points difference between Ericson, Grosjean and Lecrelc.
javier javier (@j3d89)
29th June 2018, 18:25
im sure if ericsson(yes ericsson) or leclerc had the hass they would do way better than what we’ve seen with romain or even magnussen
Thomas
29th June 2018, 19:05
Is it good what you’re smoking?
kpcart
30th June 2018, 3:13
I agree with him
Ldom (@ldom)
29th June 2018, 18:15
There are a bunch of drivers that need to go before Grosjean has to.
But what I find interesting is the way the stewards are looking at these race incidents under the microscope of slow motion and multiple camera angles. I think sometimes they forget that the drivers are in a Formula 1 at high speed.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
29th June 2018, 20:11
@ldom You don’t really need a microscope to see that Grossjean suddenly veered to the left and rammed Ocon.
Ocon then did the same to Gasly though, but an order of a magnitude worse. He pulled a “Vettel” veering from one side of the track all the way to the other side and was surprised that he hit another car. Actually he went so far as to blame Gasly for not getting out of the way.
Ldom (@ldom)
29th June 2018, 23:13
Didn’t mean to say Grosjean was not at fault, just that these things happen very fast and it’s easy to make bad choices. And then those bad choices are dissected over and over ad nauseam.
Personally unless it’s in the top 5 or 10, like Vettel destroying Bottas’ race and getting away with it, I don’t really care.
Sush meerkat
29th June 2018, 18:42
Didn’t Grosjean do the same thing a few years ago? Showing every one who didn’t care onboard vids of a crash?
chris (@)
29th June 2018, 20:54
I’m with Max on this one.
andrewf1 (@andrewf1)
29th June 2018, 22:04
Grosjean is a joke with no spatial awareness. Not sure how anyone can take anything he complains about seriously.
marksch (@marksch)
29th June 2018, 22:21
wait, there was “very clear onboard video?!? ” Doubt it. All i see is a stupid Halo with colors and numbers on it making it even all the more miserable.
kpcart
30th June 2018, 3:15
Oh get over the halo already, it makes no difference to onboard videos. You can see the road in front, the front wheels and the drivers hands the same way as last year.
Joe
30th June 2018, 1:25
Romain Grosjean doesn’t belong in F1, Full Stop. it’s time Haas dump this incredibly unreliable, and extremely expensive (in terms of machinery destroyed) sad example of a race driver and get some one new. Incredibly, if Fernando Alonso was in a Haas he would be fighting for podiums on a consistent basis.
Lolita
30th June 2018, 10:40
Grosjean wants to go to NASCAR…