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?
 
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His team-mates have also been very very experienced world champions. There has only been one driver that has turned up to the sport in recent times and taken it to a WDC teammate. When Romain joined Renault, it was mid-season following crashgate which wasn't far behind spygate. Alonso was most certainly king of the tree in Renault at that time.

There have been times where he has really looked to measure up to Kimi this year, but he lacks consistency and has made some bad calls on track. We only need to look at Brogan's signature to see how he might get better.

"Good judgement comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgement."
 
Glad RoGro gets his second season but he really needs to grab it with both hands hopefully he can translate that quali form (15 time in q3!) into race form.

After his first stint in F1 he did get his head together get back in GP2 and come back a lot stronger so it shows he is capable of learning so I hope he does that over the summer. I didn't like the driving scared Romain we saw in Texas at all.

Also he needs to learn to ignore Mark Webber............the rest of us have managed it!
 
Minion: Mr Boullier, we have re-signed Romain as you instructed.
EB: Kerr-Ching

8207.3.jpg
 
FB - Grosjean seems to have taken Plan B in getting into F1, get managed by a team principal. (see also both Ferrari drivers).

Plan A is, of course, the "Senna" ploy.
 
I am not sure who Grosjean can be replaced with...Sutil two years ago should have taken the offer then but that was his fault for dithering and haggling

Basically Lotus would have to put another unknown quantity in the team if it was not Romain Grosjean

I remember another famous Lotus Renault driver was very fast but supposedly accident prone and people thought Colin Chapman was out of his mind when he said his driver was a future world champion ...his name Nigel Mansell
 
If he can turn off his accident magnet he could beat Kimi next year. That is my suitably vague prediction and I'm pleased Lotus are keeping him.
 
I agree with the general train of thought that this year will be his reckoning; either he overcomes his issues and goes on to enjoy a career in F1, or he succumbs to them and his career dissolves.

I'm very glad to see Lotus have renewed his contract though. There were not that many compellingly quick drivers putting their names forward for what should hopefully be one of the quicker seats in the paddock, and Romain has demonstrated he is a very quick driver.

Barring Fangio, Ascari and Clark - as a statistician I am aware that excluding data can be dangerously misleading, but these drivers do belong to a previous era of racing - only Michael Schumacher has a higher percentage of fastest laps, and only Alain Prost and Schumacher have more race fastest laps than Kimi. Considering both Romain and Kimi were new boys in a new car after a year or two away, that Romain appeared faster over a single lap, and over a race distance on occasion, everything points to the Swiss/Frenchman being something worth investing in.

If Romain wants to succeed he need look no further than the neighbouring garage. Kimi was a model of consistency this year. He knew when to fight and when to cut his losses. On occasion he perhaps was not aggressive enough, Bahrain being a good example, but perhaps Kimi knows more about playing percentages in F1 than I do.

If Romain can somehow get through turn one unscathed I believe he will run Kimi close next year.
 
I'm a few days late commenting on RoGro's extension at Lotus. I'm very excited to see what he can do next year. He clearly has pace and unfortunately became the whipping boy for every incident he was involved in, and honestly after Spa it was hard not to assume everything was his fault even if that's not the case. Maybe it's wishful thinking on my part but I really think that Lotus could be a team to reckon with next year provided that RoGro can stay out of trouble and finish races.

And I agree on ignoring Mark Webber......he has a lot of room to talk after nearly clearing out his own team mate in Brazil.
 
aaron8831 another RoGro fan! Nice to see the bad press hasn't made us extinct.

As certain members keep reminding me I tipped him to win a GP last year and it seemed to curse him straight after I made it so I won't make it for 2013. I will say he has a great oppotunity as I only see that Enstone car getting stronger.
 
RasputinLives

I believe Romain will grow up in a better driver once he clears his head and probably some mentoring by JYS will help him

Under the right circumstances he can win a race but not the championship. I still have this nagging feeling that the background noises about who owns and supplies funding to the team is a distraction. They clearly will do not have the resources of the top 3 plus Mercedes

They will need a Brawn like start to stand a chance

On top of that the Renault engine is coming to an end and it is clear that Renault view Red Bull as the factory team and seem to have a close bond with Williams probably because of what Flavio did to their brand whilst still managing the Enstone team
 
I see what your saying and it could go that way but lets remember that during their history the Enstone outfit have usually been one of the best developers and that they got their Renault engines through being succesful first. The Renault engines came second and to begin with they weren't the factory team for them and were still succesful. Plus with a spare Ferrari engine kicking around I doubt they are too worried.

The team in its history seems to have a rise and fall over a ten year cycle which is just about due to peak again. I think Romain is in a decent position if he takes his oppotunity. I'd rather be at a dedicated team like Enstone than down the road at Merc anyways.
 
RasputinLives

My opinion is Renault only see the Enstone team as a customer and definitely do not have the same relations as with Red Bull and Williams

Renault did say they wanted to supply to two teams but then retracted saying they could manage four teams

The team at Enstone are dedicated guys but its who is running the show and supplying the finances which could cause confusion
 

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