Is It Time To End Romain Grosjean's F1 Career?
As the 2018 F1 season ebbs and flows towards its conclusion with the likelihood of Lewis Hamilton claiming a fifth World Championship to equal the great Juan Manuel Fangio, the driver lineups for 2019 are yet to be completed. From the confirmations so far there is something of a merry-go-round with exciting young drivers being given drives at top teams, namely Charles Leclerc at Ferrari and Pierre Gasly at Red Bull as a consequence of Daniel Ricciardo's switch to Renault. Leclerc's appointment at Ferrari is a notable shift from the Scuderia's policy of hiring experienced racers yet the general consensus is that signing Leclerc is not a bad decision, unless you are from Kimi Räikkonen's camp perhaps.
Kimi Räikkonen is the last man to win a World Championship as a Ferrari driver, way back in 2007. Arguably he has not lived up to expectation in his second stint with the Italian team after being comfortably beaten by first Fernando Alonso and then Sebastian Vettel as team-mates. It is interesting to note that as much as the decision to promote Leclerc is a positive one there is plenty of support for Kimi, and those supporters believe he should still be in the Ferrari for 2019. But he has agreed to switch to Sauber for next season, a team who this year have improved vastly but being frank they won't be challenging for podiums, let alone wins next year. Räikkonen is somewhat famous for his "If I'm not winning, what's the point?" point of view so the decision to take a step down and continue is something of a surprise.
Jolyon Palmer of the BBC has suggested that Kimi's time in F1 should be at an end, and that he should step aside and let younger talent through and there is weight to that argument but let us not forget, Kimi Räikkonen is a Formula 1 World Champion. So what of the other drivers who are experienced in F1 but not performing as well as perhaps they should be? Sergio Perez? I think he's doing a good job in the Force India and has shown what a talent he is (apart from one year at McLaren in 2013), but is also prone to the occasional lapse. Esteban Ocon? Still young and unlucky to find himself potentially without a drive next year, but you could hardly argue that he isn't performing well in the other Force India, at least when he and his team-mate aren't colliding.
Palmer's cross-hairs are lined up at Räikkonen but for me the driver who should be most under pressure and questioning whether they deserve to continue in F1 is Romain Grosjean. The Frenchman has talent, that is clear, but he also has the ability to make a mistake at any second and sometimes not take accountability for it. Example, Baku under the safety car this year when he lost the car while warming up tyres and hit the barrier all on his own, then suggested over the radio he had been hit from behind by Marcus Ericsson's Sauber. Grosjean's dream was always to drive for Ferrari and that was the reasoning behind his move from Renault to the Ferrari powered Haas team, yet the first opportunity for a drive at Maranello has gone to a youngster who will be in just his second season. Unless Leclerc has a shocker, or Vettel leaves mid contract then the Ferrari door is firmly shut for Grosjean.
During the course of his F1 career Grosjean has had countless incidents, so much so that when Pastor Maldonado joined him at Renault for 2014 some joked that their scrap bill would send them out of business within a year. In 2012 he had contact on the first lap for 7 races running at one point, coming to a head at the Belgian GP when he was responsible for a first corner pile-up that took out 2 title-contenders and very nearly resulted in injuries to Fernando Alonso as Grosjean's car rode over his cockpit. That led to a one-race ban, the first given to a driver since Michael Schumacher in 1994 for ignoring black flags at the British GP. Later that season he collided with Mark Webber in Japan at turn 1, leading the Aussie to label Grosjean in a live TV interview as a "first lap nutcase". It hasn't been his last incident on the first lap of a race, despite a claim to have "learnt his lesson" as a result of his ban.
The crashes, the incidents, the awful first half of the 2018 campaign (no points until the ninth race of the year, albeit a great 4th place in Austria) and multiple penalties must surely lead to some questions as to why he is still in F1 with such a large pool of talented young drivers waiting in the wings. Last weekend at the Singapore GP he ignored blue flags and caused Lewis Hamilton to lose a comfortable 5 second lead over Verstappen while he tussled with Sergey Sirotkin's Williams. For this he was given yet another penalty.
So while questions are being asked about why Kimi Räikkonen is continuing in F1 while arguably the most talented driver on the grid, double World Champion Fernando Alonso is leaving, I find it difficult to understand why Grosjean lives on in the pinnacle of motorsport. He is talented, but is prone to mistakes of judgement in various ways that end up costing his Haas team money both in car parts and lost revenue from the points thrown away. What about giving George Russell or Esteban Ocon the opportunity? Being brutally honest, Grosjean will never be a World Champion. He will not get a drive in a top team anymore. If you're making the argument that Räikkonen is taking up a seat that a young driver should fill, well you must make that argument for Grosjean too. If I were Esteban Ocon or George Russell I would be hammering on the Haas door incessantly.
Kimi Räikkonen is the last man to win a World Championship as a Ferrari driver, way back in 2007. Arguably he has not lived up to expectation in his second stint with the Italian team after being comfortably beaten by first Fernando Alonso and then Sebastian Vettel as team-mates. It is interesting to note that as much as the decision to promote Leclerc is a positive one there is plenty of support for Kimi, and those supporters believe he should still be in the Ferrari for 2019. But he has agreed to switch to Sauber for next season, a team who this year have improved vastly but being frank they won't be challenging for podiums, let alone wins next year. Räikkonen is somewhat famous for his "If I'm not winning, what's the point?" point of view so the decision to take a step down and continue is something of a surprise.
Jolyon Palmer of the BBC has suggested that Kimi's time in F1 should be at an end, and that he should step aside and let younger talent through and there is weight to that argument but let us not forget, Kimi Räikkonen is a Formula 1 World Champion. So what of the other drivers who are experienced in F1 but not performing as well as perhaps they should be? Sergio Perez? I think he's doing a good job in the Force India and has shown what a talent he is (apart from one year at McLaren in 2013), but is also prone to the occasional lapse. Esteban Ocon? Still young and unlucky to find himself potentially without a drive next year, but you could hardly argue that he isn't performing well in the other Force India, at least when he and his team-mate aren't colliding.
During the course of his F1 career Grosjean has had countless incidents, so much so that when Pastor Maldonado joined him at Renault for 2014 some joked that their scrap bill would send them out of business within a year. In 2012 he had contact on the first lap for 7 races running at one point, coming to a head at the Belgian GP when he was responsible for a first corner pile-up that took out 2 title-contenders and very nearly resulted in injuries to Fernando Alonso as Grosjean's car rode over his cockpit. That led to a one-race ban, the first given to a driver since Michael Schumacher in 1994 for ignoring black flags at the British GP. Later that season he collided with Mark Webber in Japan at turn 1, leading the Aussie to label Grosjean in a live TV interview as a "first lap nutcase". It hasn't been his last incident on the first lap of a race, despite a claim to have "learnt his lesson" as a result of his ban.
The crashes, the incidents, the awful first half of the 2018 campaign (no points until the ninth race of the year, albeit a great 4th place in Austria) and multiple penalties must surely lead to some questions as to why he is still in F1 with such a large pool of talented young drivers waiting in the wings. Last weekend at the Singapore GP he ignored blue flags and caused Lewis Hamilton to lose a comfortable 5 second lead over Verstappen while he tussled with Sergey Sirotkin's Williams. For this he was given yet another penalty.
So while questions are being asked about why Kimi Räikkonen is continuing in F1 while arguably the most talented driver on the grid, double World Champion Fernando Alonso is leaving, I find it difficult to understand why Grosjean lives on in the pinnacle of motorsport. He is talented, but is prone to mistakes of judgement in various ways that end up costing his Haas team money both in car parts and lost revenue from the points thrown away. What about giving George Russell or Esteban Ocon the opportunity? Being brutally honest, Grosjean will never be a World Champion. He will not get a drive in a top team anymore. If you're making the argument that Räikkonen is taking up a seat that a young driver should fill, well you must make that argument for Grosjean too. If I were Esteban Ocon or George Russell I would be hammering on the Haas door incessantly.
 |
| Romain Grosjean: Has time run out? |
Comments
Post a Comment