03/02/2021
NEWS STORY
Romain Grosjean has announced that he is to race in IndyCar this season after securing a seat with Dale Coyne Racing.
However, the Frenchman will only contest the rounds held on road and street tracks having decided to miss out on the superspeedways and ovals, including Indianapolis.
“I'm very excited for this opportunity to race in the United States in the IndyCar Series," he said in a press conference today, less than two months after his horrific crash during the Sakhir Grand Prix.
"I had different options in front of me for this coming season and choosing to go IndyCar racing was definitively my favourite one, although, I'm not ready yet to take on the ovals.
"Being a father of three kids I need to be sensible in my decisions, in my choices in the future," he added, "and at the minute I don't feel comfortable, for my kids and my wife, to race ovals... at least the speedways.
"IndyCar has a much more level playing field than what I have been used to in my career so far," he said. "It will be exciting to challenge for podiums and wins again."
Asked about his recovery following the fiery crash in Bahrain, he said: "My left hand is still healing, but we are just about ready to get back into the race car and start this next chapter of my career."
Having been dropped by Haas, even before Sakhir Grosjean's F1 career appeared to be at an end, the Frenchman, though often erratic, widely regarded as one of the fastest men on the grid.
For Grosjean, the move to IndyCar represents a return to the type of spec-car series in which he had previously starred, most notably GP2. In today's press conference he admitted that he was approached Dale Coyne, before the infamous Bahrain crash.
I got in contact with Dale Coyne before the Bahrain incident, I think… maybe a couple of weeks before Imola and we got on very nicely, and he made us an offer. I was going to do the full championship but then, obviously, Bahrain happened.
"One thing I've learned with my accident is that life is short," he continued, "and I want to have the choice to say no to some things, and if that's being in Formula 1 to barely go out of Q1 once or twice a year, I think that chapter is closed for me and I would much rather look at other places where I can go race and potentially try to win races."
Effectively ruling out a return to F1, he admitted that he is keen to take Toto Wolff up on his offer of a run in the Mercedes.
"I'm still very keen on jumping in the Mercedes for sure," he grinned, "it's an offer you cannot refuse. Just for me to have an understanding of the taste of that car and how it was working. But I won't bother Toto right now, though he can expect to get a phone call eventually."