Romain Grosjean - Lights Out ●●●●●

#8 ROMAIN GROSJEAN

Competing in Formula 1 between 2009 and 2020, Romain Grosjean recorded multiple podium finishes during his time at Lotus, and also raced for Renault and Haas.

Full Name	Romain Grosjean
Nationality	French
Date of Birth	17th April 1986
First Race	2009 European Grand Prix
First Win	–
Wins	0
Poles	0
Podiums	10
Fastest Laps	1

Born in Geneva, Switzerland to a Swiss father and French mother, Romain Grosjean’s karting career started relatively late, at the age of fourteen. By 2003, though, he had already progressed to single-seaters, and a season in the Formula Lista Junior Championship saw him triumph, taking victory at every race. A move to French Formula Renault followed in 2004, and after a learning year, Grosjean dominated the championship in 2005, taking ten victories. A challenging year in Formula 3 Euro Series followed, though a one off appearance at the British Formula Three Championship brought him two poles and two wins. He continued in the Formula 3 Euro Series in 2007, this time with the ASM team, and won the title after a rivalry with Sebastien Buemi. His junior career also boasts three top ten finishes at the Macau Grand Prix between 2005 and 2008.

The next logical step on the ladder was the GP2 series, where he won the inaugural GP2 Asia series, before finishing fourteen points off the title in the main series. Forced out of ART by the arrival of Nico Hulkenberg, Grosjean moved to the Campos team for the 2009 season, and would finish fourth in the title hunt, despite missing the end of the season due to other commitments.

These other commitments were with the Renault F1 team. Renault had nurtured Grosjean’s career since he won the French Formula Renault championship. When Nelson Piquet Jnr left the team mid-2009, Grosjean was the driver who would replace him. After a number of unfortunate incidents in his first Grands Prix and being off the pace of his double World Champion team-mate Fernando Alonso, Grosjean was not retained by the team for 2010.

Undeterred, in 2010 Grosjean returned to GP2, competed in the GT1 World Championship, made his début at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and won the Auto GP title. Another season in GP2 followed, in which he won both the Asian series and the main series, scoring six wins and finishing 35 points ahead of his nearest rival. Grosjean was also welcomed back to the re-branded Lotus Renault team in 2011 as a test driver and for 2012, they announced he would be re-joining their driver line-up alongside Kimi Raikkonen. Though he impressed with his raw speed and three podium finishes, his comeback year will mostly be remembered for the huge crash he caused at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix. Despite a spate of similar first lap errors, Grosjean was retained for 2013. He came back stronger. Gone were the silly errors, and instead he took six podium finishes and out-performed his team-mate for much of the latter half of the year. The team struggled with their new hybrid engine in 2014, and Grosjean scored just eight points. Despite financial issues in 2015, the switch to Mercedes power made the Lotus team more able to fight for points, and Grosjean even scored an unlikely podium at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Uncertainty over the Lotus team’s future, and a desire to be a team leader, led the Frenchman to signing up for the new Haas team for 2016. The team stunned the paddock by being highly competitive in their first races, as Grosjean scored a sixth place in Australia and a fifth in Bahrain. Teething issues and brake struggles hampered the team, and Grosjean, for the rest of the year, but he scored all of the team’s 29 points in their maiden season.

The driver of car number eight finished in the points on eight occasions in 2017, but Romain Grosjean never reached the heights of Haas’ impressive early 2016 race pace. A best ever qualifying of sixth at the Australian Grand Prix was the highlight. More often than not the Frenchman could be heard complaining on the team radio due to frustrations with his car, but nevertheless he maintained his team leader status, regularly finishing ahead of new team-mate Kevin Magnussen in both qualifying and the races.

In 2018, it was Magnussen who seemed to have the upper-hand over the Frenchman at the Haas team. The first half of Grosjean’s season was littered with errors: a spin which wiped out several drivers on the first lap in the Spanish Grand Prix, multiple crashes over the French Grand Prix weekend and a collision with Carlos Sainz in Silverstone which ended both their races. Perhaps his most infamous moment of 2018 was a crash under Safety Car conditions in Baku, in which his race engineer pointed blame at Marcus Ericsson, despite the Swede being nowhere near the Haas car. There was misfortune, too, when running high in the points in Australia, a pit-stop error ended both Haas drivers’ races. Despite all of this, Grosjean had moments where he shone in 2018, including recording the team’s best ever finish with fourth in Austria.

GROSJEAN IN 2019

Scoring only eight points, Romain Grosjean had his worst full season in Formula 1. It’s the second time he has scored eight points over the course of a year, but the last time he did it in 2014, he finished fourteenth overall, compared to eighteenth in 2019. His low championship position was a result of multiple factors – not least of them a poor race car and seven DNFs.

He scored his first point of the year with tenth place in Spain, and followed that up with another tenth place at the next race in Monaco. He went on to finish seventh in Germany, but that would be his final points appearance of the year.

Many had expected Grosjean to be out of the team for 2020 – but it was he who, in part, helped Haas try to find a solution, remaining adamant that they should switch back to their older spec of car. Read more: Romain Grosjean’s 2019 Season In Stats.

GROSJEAN IN 2020

Romain Grosjean was involved in one of the most shocking incidents in recent Formula 1 history at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix. After glancing Daniil Kvyat’s AlphaTauri, Grosjean speared into a barrier, his car splitting in two as the survival cell penetrated the metal railings. The car burst into flames and Grosjean was – thankfully – able to extract himself to safety, albeit with minor burns.

Of the 800 laps which he raced in 2020, Grosjean spent only 89 in the points-paying positions. Grosjean recorded his team’s best result in 2020 with a ninth place finish at the Eifel Grand Prix – the only time he scored in the season. The Haas car was clearly not capable of scoring points regularly, regardless of its driver, and the Frenchman still showed the occasional turn of speed. Read more: Romain Grosjean’s 2020 Season In Stats.

It was announced in October that both Grosjean and team-mate Kevin Magnussen would leave the Haas team at the end of 2020. Grosjean’s crash robbed him of the chance to end his Formula 1 career in a more conventional way. He had hopes of returning to the cockpit for the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but ultimately decided against it in order to aid his recovery and not risk further damage. He has been offered the opportunity to test with a number of teams following his recovery, including with reigning champions Mercedes. Grosjean leaves Formula 1 having made 179 starts, scoring 391 points and ten podium finishes.

ROMAIN GROSJEAN’S F1 RECORD

Year	Team	Final Position	Points Scored	Podiums
2009	Renault	23rd	0	0
2012	Lotus	8th	96	3
2013	Lotus	7th	132	6
2014	Lotus	14th	8	0
2015	Lotus	11th	51	1
2016	Haas	13th	29	0
2017	Haas	13th	28	0
2018	Haas	14th	37	0
2019	Haas	18th	8	0
2020	Haas	19th	2	0