Grosjean's practise session accident at Ste Devote is, to me, final confirmation of something I've suspected (and commented on already) for some time. I believe he suffers from a lack of innate spatial awareness and an inability to "read the road". He does not intuitively know the space that he and his car occupies and does not seem to take in and process his surroundings.
Many of his crashes leading up to and including that notorious Spa start were symptomatic in that he did not appear to have the sense of his own "space" and a mind map of his surroundings. He is still very quick when out on his own but he really struggles in traffic. Ever since his ban and subsequent probation following Spa, he has been noticeably slower when other cars are around him and he appears to look around and check his mirrors more often than should be necessary.
In the practlce incident where he seemed surprised by Hamilton leaving the pits the commentators noted his being distracted. So much so that Ant Davidson specifically pointed that out in his Sky Pad" piece and that Romain was looking in his mirror and lost concentration. Which indeed he did, just when he should have been concentrating on his braking and trajectory to and through Ste Devote That was almost bizarre and shows not only a lack of instinctive spatial awareness but very poor concentration, to boot.
Any good racing driver plans two or three corners in advance and their surroundings and changing conditions are mentally processed and reacted to largely on a subconscious and intuitive level. Indeed, we often see footage of drivers mentally driving a circuit whilst sitting in their car in the garage, in effect programming the circuit into their memory. When on track, he/she will use their ability to remember what happens around them as they progress in and through the field. This mind map of their situation will be a fluid processing of not only where they are going, but also the likely trajectories of the other traffic around them. They will be reading what is happening in the distance as well as what is directly ahead of them. There is insufficient time to process all of that information on a conscious level so it is done on a subconscious one. A natural and innate capacity to carry out these mental processes is vital in the decision making with regard to where one can position oneself and one's vehicle in rapidly changing circumstances.
Psychologists have been arguing about and wrestling with all of this for donkeys years and are no nearer to reaching a consensus today than they were in the days of Freud and Jung. With modern technology such as encephalography they are able to map the brain and identify which parts are doing what but they are no nearer to understanding how. So, as yet there appears to be no cure for spatial awareness problems. The issues can only be mitigated against by trying to educate individuals to "be more careful" or to take more time to look more often and for longer periods of time in order to digest visual information. Such education is insufficient to remedy a deficit in a racing driver's psychological armoury since it is replacing the brains natural ability to process information subconsiously with very much slower conscious mental action.
I dare say some folk's reading this will think I'm talking a load of BS. However, one can see every day life examples of what I've been talking about by observing the behaviour of ordinary folk driving on the highway. Drivers with very good spacial awareness and subconsious planning abilities, etc. will appear to "float" through the traffic. The "body language" of their vehicles will be calm with no sudden movements such as heavy braking and swerving. They will be the folk's effortlessly creating lots of space for themselves, changing lanes gracefully in good time and not getting themselves "boxed in" by leaving it too late. On the other hand, those with deficits will drive - usually fixated on the vehicle directly ahead of them - failing to "see" what is happening ahead or around them. At worst their decision making will be erratic and sudden. They will speed up to a vehicle ahead and, if they're not boxed in, change lanes suddenly, often with a swerve. If there is a traffic jam in the distance or a problem in the lane that they are in, they will only react when they reach it often by braking suddenly at the last moment. Their car body language will reflect all this by often looking "out of shape". The car will be drifting about as the driver's deciding what to do, diving on braking, pitching and rolling as it changes direction.
So back to Romain. Drivers are human, individual and therefore different with huge variety in capacity and behaviour, some worse and others better. A lot of behaviour can be learned and taught but a lot including actual capacity has to be innate. To me the term "natural talent" is a reference to the innate, in-built mental capacity of someone to be good at that particular task. In that context I believe Grosjean doesn't have enough of it and, barring a new scientific discovery for brain enhancement, I don't think he should stay in F1.
Sorry Romain.
Oh, and please remember that doesn't mean I think you are a bad person just that you're in the wrong job.
Another of those symptoms, I'm afraid.
