Romain Grosjean

Was drafted into F1 with not an ounce of testing and replaced Nelson Piquet Jr in the middle of 2009 when he was possibly on route to becoming the GP2 Champion that season, which went to Nico Hulkenburg.

In his 7 races in F1 he failed to impress and the no in-season testing rule didn't help his course. Plus having Fernando Alonso as his teammate couldn't have helped either.

In 2010 Grosjean went to do Auto GP, before returning back to GP2 on July 20th for a few guess appearances for DAM'S. But in 2011 Grosjean was given a full-time drive by DAM'S for the 2011 GP2 series and went on to become the 2011 GP2 Champion.

My question is will Grosjean get a drive for 2012? Plus how far can this guy go if he gets into F1?

 

[gdeacon7]

Apologies teabagyokel, I was working off wikipedia and memory for that list and both must have let me down. Like I said in the post, I wasn't assigning blame to the incidents. Some were 100% his fault, others 0%, but the sheer number of accidents he's been involved in surely suggest that his approach to race starts is partly to blame.

 

[Viscount]

teabagyokel Not Grosjean's fault that incident with Maldonado in Melbourne but it was avoidable.

I wish I could find the clip from Webber's onboard, but Vettel overtook Webber after coming out of the bus stop chicane at Spa this year which almost resulted in a very similar incident but Webber was able to avoid touching Vettel. I remember being pretty impressed with it due to his car control and clear awareness of the size of his car.

 

[ZakspeedYakspeed]

2:32 ?

 

[Speshal]

Just reading the paper and Bernie has suggested that RG gets his eyes tested.

This isn't as silly as it sounds, Bernie opines that Romain may have a problem with his peripheral vision.

"Lotus should take him away and get all the tests done," he said. "It seems to me that he is a very fast driver but seems to have trouble in seeing what is around him. A lot of what has happened to him this season has involved not being able to react to things happening in his peripheral vision.

"That could be the problem. If it was up to me, I would have him stand down for a grand prix, send him for every test and be sure that his eyesight was OK."
Deploying the old insult often hurled at football referees was not meant as a joke by Ecclestone. He employed Sid Watkins, the eminent neurosurgeon, to transform safety in F1 at a time when motor racing was the most hazardous sport on the planet. Together they devised a number of "off-the-wall" strategies to check on the health of drivers when symptoms were not obvious. Watkins died last month but Ecclestone learnt enough from him to spot the signs.
"If Sid was still around and working in Formula One, I would have got him to do the tests or find out the best place for them," Ecclestone said.
"These things are not always obvious so the people at Lotus should try checking him. It could be that simple."

 

[F1Yorkshire]

The visibility a driver has from the car is the problem. The mirrors may well as not be there and due to the excellent safety regs the cockpit sides are very high too.

How the other drivers cope with the limited view isn't just down to what they can see. It is more to do with what they can hear and more importantly the racing instincts they have developed. RoGro seems to be lacking the spacial awareness and going for an eye check isn't going to solve it.

Bust him back down to GP2, see if he can develop the skills needed and if not maybe he could be better off getting a job as a premier league referee.

 

[Viscount]

GP2 champions aren't allowed to return to the series.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Is GP2 such a great schooling place to help drivers recover their safe driving skills? If so I must have been watching some other series by mistake.

Whilst in Paris a few years ago we went to the Eiffel Tower. That day they had a mini road layout where children could learn something about driving. They were all driving round being polite to each other with one exception. He was about seven or eight years old racing round and pushing everyone out of his way. At the time I thought that he was training as a taxi driver but now I'm having second thoughts.

Why didn't I bother to get his name.

 

[RasputinLives]

Ok so no accidents and a steady points finish for RoGro. He should jump in front of Rosberg in standings by end of season but he might get caught by Massa at this rate.

 

[gdeacon7]

Well it wasn't the most heinous accident, but we can still add one to Grosjean's tally of first lap contact.

 

[Incubus]

I don't think we do actually. I don't see in what way this one would have been Grosjean's fault?

 

[gdeacon7]

I'm just talking about the number of times he's tangled, regardless of blame. Rosberg says it was a racing incident. The puncture cost him a lot of time, which explains why Kimi won the race and Grosjean got caught up in a mid-field accident.

 

[RasputinLives]

So Grosjean finally jumps in front of Rosberg and puts himself in 8th in the world championship - which is about where he should be in the 4th quickest car in the field - however he is 110 points (4 race wins and a 5th!) behind his team-mate!

Still I think if someone had told him he'd be 8th in the championship with 96 points with one race to go at the start of the season he'd have taken it.

 

[Soumya Banerjee]

So Grosjean finally jumps in front of Rosberg and puts himself in 8th in the world championship - which is about where he should be in the 4th quickest car in the field - however he is 110 points (4 race wins and a 5th!) behind his team-mate!

Still I think if someone had told him he'd be 8th in the championship with 96 points with one race to go at the start of the season he'd have taken it.

I wonder whether the person would have told him about his one-race ban.
While i admire his pace,especially over one lap,i cant help but think that his car control is rather poor. He remains the only person to have spun in every wet session this year(race and quali sessions,i mean,not practice sessions for i have no idea whether he spun off in each of those). I was stunned to see him rocketing off at the Mergulho as soon as the rain began falling. And while his teammate struggled in wet conditions as well,RoGro's performance was nothing short of shocking. Including his potentially dangerous clash with DLR in Saturday,which was largely his fault(imho).

 

[no-FIAt-please]

Grosjean has won the RoC, beating Kristensen in the final.

 

[aaron8831]

Seemed the RoGro had a pretty good weekend at the RoC. I wish Lotus would just come out and confirm him for next year

 

[Jos the Boss]

Lost to Schumi twice and beat him once, also beat Seb!

 

[Mephistopheles]

I've got my fingers crossed that Lotus don't retain him for next year....

 

[RasputinLives]

I think you'll be dissapointed Mephistopheles. Even more so if your hoping Lotus resign Bruno

 

[Mephistopheles]

I'm not really thinking of Bruno It is just that he was the cause of an accident that came within inches of killing Alonso and that is something I never want to see again....

 

[teabagyokel]

So he is really quick when he doesn't have anyone near him at the start. Not surprised...