Well as a fan of Romain Grosjean I write this article with a heavy heart but it seems his contract has not been renewed as of yet and as Enstone has already sorted out Kimi's it means that they are probably having a think about it which means there is a possibility that Romain won't be back to improve his PR next year.
If it does happen then I think its a crying shame. Yes he's had his bad press and had his accidents but he's also shown he has a great turn of speed and before he became this driver who, in DC's words, is driving scared when he stayed out of early accidents showed he really could compete with the front runners. Its true Bahrain and Canada feel a long time ago but his performances shouldn't be forgotten. Personally I think if Piquet Jr and Petrov earned themselves a second year at Enstone then Grosjean should be given on too.
However there is a possibility that he will be out the door so who is on the cards to pick the seat up?
Esteban Gutiérrez - Drives for Enstone in GP2 and had a half decent season but with Sauber suddenly saying Kobi might stay it suddenly occured to me that maybe this was the case because their Mexican youngster was off somewhere else - otherwise surely Telemex would insist on a Mexican driver? But if Gutteriez was off to Enstone it would make sense that Kobi was back in again. Would he do well at Enstone? well its anyones guess, he'd probably do alright but I'd say Grosjean was a safer bet then he was so it would be an odd move. Unless of course having an alternative Mexcian driver might attract a certain very rich man into giving them some backing?
Jérôme d'Ambrosio - Has been the test driver all season and has clocked massive amounts of simulator time and even some testing the real thing. He also is in the Eric Boullier stable of drivers which is handy when you're going for an Enstone drive. However he didn't exactly blow the bloody doors off when he got his chance at Monza. True coming inot a car mid-season for one race is dififcult especially at Monza when you have no KERS but did he really show enough to be given the race seat?
Jaime Alguersuari - The man who would be God has been tweeting like crazy this season about his return to F1 in 2013 but any concrete plans are yet to surface. At one point he was meant to be the next big thing and certainly has a good junior record with the general thinking being that maybe he was brought into F1 just a little too young. I certainly think he showed us enough at Toro Rosso for us to say he'd bring the Enstone car home for some decent results but wouold he do it consistantly? He did tend to be up and down and as the only reason for ditiching Grosjean would be his lack of it would Alguersauri be too big a risk? On top of which, whilst not getting the bad press Grosjean has, Jamie did have a rep as a wheel banger and pulled some questionable moves on his day. Is he just to simmilar to what he's meant to be replacing?
Kamui Kobayashi - Only 8 points behind his much raved about team-mate and most people consider he's had a poor year compared to his previous too. Has shown he is more than capable of following and maximising a strategy from day one and over his threee seasons has learnt the skill of knowing when to pick his battles. I think Kobi would be an ideal back up for Kimi but I have a feeling he doesn't have the backing to land the drive.
Heikki Kovalainen - Is the time right for Heiki to go back to Enstone? Has shown he can play the back up man at Mclaren and has had 3 more seasons to mature since then. Has a steady head and experience to stay out of trouble and would probably be a match for Grosjean speedwise. If they are looking for someone with all Grosjean's talents and less of his faults then I can think of no one better - The only draw back I can think of is that with 2 Finns in the team, Enstone may have to run a shark nose.
I know there are other contenders (although I think Adrian Sutil may have written himself out of this one) and in all honesty I'd like to see Grosjean stay but does anyone else have any thoughts?
If it does happen then I think its a crying shame. Yes he's had his bad press and had his accidents but he's also shown he has a great turn of speed and before he became this driver who, in DC's words, is driving scared when he stayed out of early accidents showed he really could compete with the front runners. Its true Bahrain and Canada feel a long time ago but his performances shouldn't be forgotten. Personally I think if Piquet Jr and Petrov earned themselves a second year at Enstone then Grosjean should be given on too.
However there is a possibility that he will be out the door so who is on the cards to pick the seat up?
Esteban Gutiérrez - Drives for Enstone in GP2 and had a half decent season but with Sauber suddenly saying Kobi might stay it suddenly occured to me that maybe this was the case because their Mexican youngster was off somewhere else - otherwise surely Telemex would insist on a Mexican driver? But if Gutteriez was off to Enstone it would make sense that Kobi was back in again. Would he do well at Enstone? well its anyones guess, he'd probably do alright but I'd say Grosjean was a safer bet then he was so it would be an odd move. Unless of course having an alternative Mexcian driver might attract a certain very rich man into giving them some backing?
Jérôme d'Ambrosio - Has been the test driver all season and has clocked massive amounts of simulator time and even some testing the real thing. He also is in the Eric Boullier stable of drivers which is handy when you're going for an Enstone drive. However he didn't exactly blow the bloody doors off when he got his chance at Monza. True coming inot a car mid-season for one race is dififcult especially at Monza when you have no KERS but did he really show enough to be given the race seat?
Jaime Alguersuari - The man who would be God has been tweeting like crazy this season about his return to F1 in 2013 but any concrete plans are yet to surface. At one point he was meant to be the next big thing and certainly has a good junior record with the general thinking being that maybe he was brought into F1 just a little too young. I certainly think he showed us enough at Toro Rosso for us to say he'd bring the Enstone car home for some decent results but wouold he do it consistantly? He did tend to be up and down and as the only reason for ditiching Grosjean would be his lack of it would Alguersauri be too big a risk? On top of which, whilst not getting the bad press Grosjean has, Jamie did have a rep as a wheel banger and pulled some questionable moves on his day. Is he just to simmilar to what he's meant to be replacing?
Kamui Kobayashi - Only 8 points behind his much raved about team-mate and most people consider he's had a poor year compared to his previous too. Has shown he is more than capable of following and maximising a strategy from day one and over his threee seasons has learnt the skill of knowing when to pick his battles. I think Kobi would be an ideal back up for Kimi but I have a feeling he doesn't have the backing to land the drive.
Heikki Kovalainen - Is the time right for Heiki to go back to Enstone? Has shown he can play the back up man at Mclaren and has had 3 more seasons to mature since then. Has a steady head and experience to stay out of trouble and would probably be a match for Grosjean speedwise. If they are looking for someone with all Grosjean's talents and less of his faults then I can think of no one better - The only draw back I can think of is that with 2 Finns in the team, Enstone may have to run a shark nose.
I know there are other contenders (although I think Adrian Sutil may have written himself out of this one) and in all honesty I'd like to see Grosjean stay but does anyone else have any thoughts?