Romain Grosjean was happy that his development skills helped Haas F1 Team in 2019 season to identify the root cause of their troubles.
Haas had a troubled 2019 F1 season as the team couldn’t quickly react to its issues which kick-started early in the year and continued to increase post the upgrades in Barcelona. They pinned it on the tyres initially but realised it wasn’t the case.
Its experienced campaigner, Grosjean, stepped in and pushed the team to pull back on the upgrades as the Frenchman admitted that the car didn’t feel good at all. Kevin Magnussen did not straightaway had issues but could understand his teammate’s saying.
In fact, the Dane admitted that he would have taken up the hybrid spec earlier in hindsight. For a new team like Haas, the experience of Grosjean eventually came to the rescue and despite the dodgy season he had, he made the difference for them.
When asked by FormulaRapida.net if he felt good that his inputs helped Haas, Grosjean felt happy but he stated that development has always been his strength which came good. “I think it’s been-it’s been valuable for a few years now,” said Grosjean.
“It’s been always my strength [setting up the car]. I’ve got a lot of weaknesses, but definitely, developing the car has been one of my strengths. You know, 2014 we had a terrible car [at Lotus], and we worked really hard in 2015.
“We came back, and actually had a decent car where I had a podium and a good finish. So, development is generally been one of my strengths. Same thing with the team [Haas], 2017 was not so good, but 2018 was much better.
“And this year, it was very clear from Barcelona, that I just didn’t want to run the new package, and I felt it was less good. We could have probably saved some time had we reverted back earlier to the older spec, but it’s always easy afterwards to say things.
“If I knew I’d buy a lot of Amazon shares when I was young, on the stock market. Or maybe buy the company.” Despite the inputs, Grosjean was eventually beaten by Magnussen as the Dane ended up 16th with 20 and the Frenchman was 18th with eight.
Looking at his own performance, Grosjean felt qualifying let him down as the 2019 tyres didn’t suit his style. His starts were not great either which set him back in the races. “It’s always difficult,” he said. “I think, in qualifying, I could have done a better job.
“The characteristic of the car, with the characteristic of the 2019 tyres doesn’t really suit my driving style. You can always drive around but it’s never easy or smooth as you would like, and hopefully the characteristic will change as we work in the future.
“We are working better in that aspect, having a sort of race-pace. The racing itself has been pretty good, even though, when you’re 15th and 16th, no one sees what you’re doing, but I think in general the race has been my strong point.
“The only place you can compare is with your teammate [and yes, he beat me], but I think generally the racing has been pretty good.” It will be interesting to see how Grosjean performs in 2020 as he will again be under pressure to secure his F1 future.
Here’s Romain Grosjean on seeing more pros for Haas than cons
Here’s Kevin Magnussen admitting of panic at Haas
Here’s Pietro Fittipaldi on seeking larger role with Haas
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