Kevin Magnussen is of the view that few mistakes from Romain Grosjean masked his pace in F1 as Pietro Fittipaldi adds on about the Frenchman.
Grosjean has had an up and down career in F1, where an early debut with Renault under difficult circumstances made his life tough to begin with. He returned to the junior fold and came back strongly with Lotus alongside an experienced Kimi Raikkonen.
He made impact certainly with multiple podium finishes and near-wins but a change of hands at Enstone forced him to switch to Haas, becoming their lead F1 driver. He carried on the momentum from the Lotus time and performed well in the early years of the team.
However, the form of Haas dropped in 2019 and the smaller mistakes he made earlier in his career started to look larger in the scheme of things. It led to his eventual ouster from the team at the end of 2020 F1 season, where he is being replaced by a rookie.
In fact, teammate Magnussen too is no longer to remain at Haas, where they have opted for Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin. The old pair had good words for each other at the end of their term, especially the Dane, who praised the Frenchman’s pace.
Magnussen felt that some of the mistakes Grosjean made in his career, overshadowed his true pace – something which experts have pointed out as well. The Frenchman’s inconsistency has been a problem, where he could have scored much more.
“I think what I experienced with Romain is an incredibly fast driver on one lap, not that he’s not quick in the race, he’s super quick in the race as well, but especially in one lap, he is something special,” said Magnussen to media including F1, Motorsport Network, Racefans.net, BBC, AMuS and more.
“I think having him as a benchmark, especially in qualifying, has really made me a better qualifier. You seriously need to get it right to beat Romain in qualifying. It’s hard to imagine that anyone can be much quicker than him, because on his day, he is phenomenal on one lap. I think F1, it’s funny, because Romain has made some mistakes in the last few years that have gained a lot of attention.
“I think taken away from him as some of the credit he should have been given for his abilities in the car, because I think my personal feeling is that there’s not a lot of people that can be faster than him on one lap,” summed up Magnussen. Looking at their stats, the Dane has scored 21 times to the 19 since 2017, when they teamed together.
As for qualifying, Magnussen headed it closely, as well, with 40 to 37 (this doesn’t includes the last two rounds of 2020). Despite the talked upon shortcomings for either F1 drivers, both the Dane and Grosjean were closely matched throughout the four years together.
Grosjean stand-in Fittipaldi, meanwhile, also had praises for the Frenchman. “I don’t have as much experience as Kevin racing with Romain, but for sure in testing I could see over one lap, he’s extremely fast,” he said. “I’m happy to call him a friend over the years, he’s not only a team-mate, he’s a friend of mine, and he’s always been super supportive.
“I’ve always appreciated that a lot. He’s always been open to me, when I go testing or when I came into my first race weekend. It’s sad in a way he couldn’t do his last race with the team. But I’m very happy he’s healthy. He’s always been a very good friend,” summed up Fittipaldi.
Here’s news on Haas about Nikita Mazepin
Here’s Kevin Magnussen on being at peace with F1
Here’s the drivers’ Top 10 of 2020
Here’s stats difference from 2019 to 2020
