08/08/2018
NEWS STORY
Truth be told, Romain Grosjean is one of those truly infuriating drivers. He clearly has talent, he clearly has speed, but all too often he makes unforced errors that usually end up not only in his own elimination from the race but the elimination of a couple of rivals.
Such was his overenthusiasm and recklessness that following the accident at Spa-Francorchamps in 2012, which could well have resulted in serious injury (or worse) to Fernando Alonso, he was handed a one-race ban, the first to be meted out to a driver since Michael Schumacher in 1994.
Over the subsequent winter he famously sought the help of a sports psychiatrist and most would agree that it was one of the Frenchman's better moves, for he came back in 2013 a far better driver.
However, this year has seen a worrying return to the 'old ways', the Frenchman getting involved in far too many incidents and failing to deliver the results his car is clearly capable of. Indeed, were the Frenchman to have matched his Danish teammate in the first half of the season, Haas would probably be fourth in the standings.
With the driver market on the verge of kicking off big time, Grosjean's is one of the seats most under threat, however, the Frenchman's hopes that the American team - and other prospective employers - will look at his good performances and not focus on the mistakes.
"It hasn't been a great half of the season, but it is not all about what happened in those races," he says according to ESPN. "Obviously I want to be able to go back to being able to score points reasonably and not having any trouble, which I know I can. If the car is where it is today it is not by miracle, so it's a wider picture.
"I'm not too unhappy with my career so far," says the Frenchman who made his F1 debut in 2009 with Renault, replacing Nelson Piquet Jr in the aftermath of 'Crashgate', "and I still believe I can be in Formula One for quite a bit of time.
"I don't feel old and who knows what is happening in 2021," he continues, "no one wants to sign contracts beyond the end of 2020 right now.
"Let's see what Formula One becomes like and if there is a chance or whatever. Right now I am in a good team, I am very proud of what we have been doing over the past two and half years and I think we have got some more business to do together."
Following those seven outings with Renault in late 2009, when Renault pulled the plug on its team as a result of 'Crashgate', Grosjean was one of the innocent victims, forced to return to GP2 and not returning to F1 until 2012, with Lotus, the team Renault had morphed into and which would subsequently morph back into Renault.
Despite the obvious shadow hanging over him in terms of 2019, the Frenchman believes he has a long future in F1, even if the logic is ever so slightly dubious.
"I started at 27, so I started much later than everyone else," he argues. "If you start at 18 and you go to 38 years old then you go for 20 years with 21 grands prix a season, that's 420 grands prix. If you start at 27 and you go to 37 or 38 then that is only ten or 11 years of career.
"At the end it is not a crazy amount compared to drivers who are 18 and then retiring at 28, sure that would be young to retire, but for me it's just that I got my first chance when I was 23, I got thrown under the bus and then I came back. It just took a bit of time."