Romain Grosjean

Romain Grosjean

Grosjean in 2011
Born	(1986-04-17) 17 April 1986 (age 26) Geneva, Switzerland
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	French
2012 team	Lotus-Renault
2012 car #	10
Races	13
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	1
Career points	35
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	1
First race	2009 European Grand Prix
Last race	2012 Monaco Grand Prix

Romain Grosjean (French pronunciation: [ʁomɛ̃ gʁoʒɑ̃], born 17 April 1986 in Geneva, Switzerland) is a Swiss racing driver for the Lotus F1 Team. He races under the French flag^[1] in Formula One although he has lived his entire life in Switzerland. He was the 2007 Formula Three Euroseries drivers' champion and the inaugural GP2 Asia Series champion and first drove in Formula One in 2009. He is the 2011 GP2 Asia Series and GP2 Series champion and is the first – and as of April 2012, only – two-time GP2 Asia champion and the only driver to hold both the GP2 Asia series and main GP2 series titles simultaneously.

In 2012, Grosjean returned to Formula One with the Lotus F1 Team, alongside Kimi Räikkönen.^[2]

Career

Early racing career

Grosjean won all ten rounds of the 2003 Swiss Formula Renault 1.6 championship and moved to the French Formula Renault championship for 2004.^[3]

He was seventh in that first season with one win and champion in 2005 with ten victories. Grosjean also appeared in the Formula Renault Eurocup and finished on the podium twice in Valencia.^[3]

With his results and potential in the Formula Renault series, Romain joined the Renault Driver Development programme for the continuation of his career.^[4]

Formula Three

Grosjean made his F3 debut at the demanding Macau Guia Circuit, standing in for Loïc Duval at Signature-Plus. He qualified 19th and raced to ninth, beating team-mates Fabio Carbone and Guillaume Moreau.^[3]

He did a full season in the Formula Three Euroseries in 2006 but had a tough year, taking only one podium finish and ending the year 13th. But in a one-off appearance in the British Formula Three Championship he started on pole position for both races at Pau, won both and set fastest lap in each.^[3]

He stayed in the F3 Euroseries for 2007 but stepped up to ASM Formule 3, for which Jamie Green, Lewis Hamilton, and Paul di Resta won the previous three titles.^[3] Sébastien Buemi led the championship in the early stages but Grosjean moved ahead with a victory in the ninth race of the season at Mugello.^[5] He maintained a lead in the standings from that point onwards and won the title at the final round of the year with one race in hand.^[6]

Grosjean took pole position for the prestigious Masters of F3 race at Zolder but finished 14th after stalling at the start.^[7]

GP2 Series

Grosjean driving for ART Grand Prix at the Silverstone round of the 2008 GP2 Series season.

Grosjean drove for ART in the inaugural GP2 Asia Series season alongside Stephen Jelley, winning both races of the first round of the championship. He went on to win the championship with four race victories and sixty-one points overall.

He stayed with ART Grand Prix team for the 2008 GP2 Series season.^[8] His team-mates were Luca Filippi^[9] and Sakon Yamamoto.

In the first round at the Circuit de Catalunya Grosjean started 11th after engine problems in qualifying. He rose through the field to finish fifth in the feature race, giving him fourth on the grid for the shorter sprint race.^[10] After a good start Grosjean was up to second and then passed Kobayashi for the lead. But Grosjean made a mistake on a late rolling restart and Kobayashi tried to pass him again for the lead. Grosjean moved across on Kobayashi to keep the position but the stewards decided his defensive move was illegal and gave him a drive-through penalty dropping him to 13th at the end of the race.^[11] Victory in the sprint race at Istanbul, the fourth round of the season, moved Grosjean into second place in the championship.^[12] Despite dropping back from this position, he finished the season fourth and achieved the distinction of being the highest-placed rookie in the championship.

2008 Formula Three Euroseries season champion Nico Hülkenberg joined Pastor Maldonado at ART for 2009, forcing Grosjean out of the team. Nonetheless, Renault placed him at 2008 team champions Campos Grand Prix for 2009, now known as Barwa Addax.^[13] Despite missing the last four rounds, Grosjean finished fourth in the championship standings.

Formula One

Grosjean was confirmed as Renault's test driver for 2008, replacing Nelson Piquet, Jr., who graduated to a race seat.^[14] He drove a Formula One car for the first time at the UK round of the 2008 World Series by Renault weekend at Silverstone on 7 and 8 June 2008, where he gave a number of demonstrations of the previous year's R27 car.

Renault : (2009)

He initially continued in the test driver role at Renault for 2009, but took over Piquet's seat from the European Grand Prix onwards.^[15] Grosjean qualified 14th at the European Grand Prix. He was knocked out of Q2 0.323 seconds off the pace of team mate Fernando Alonso. He finished 15th in the race after a first lap collision with Luca Badoer necessitated a stop for a new front wing. For the next round in Belgium Grosjean qualified 19th, which he blamed on traffic and yellow flags. In the race he was eliminated on the first lap after a collision with Jenson Button. At the Italian Grand Prix, Grosjean qualified a career best 12th, but made a poor start, damaged his car with contact at the first corner, spun on the second lap, and finished 15th. He described himself as "very disappointed" after the race.

Grosjean made his Formula One debut at the 2009 European Grand Prix.

At the Singapore Grand Prix, Grosjean qualified 19th after suffering brake problems. He was hopeful of making progress in the race, but the brake problems reappeared, forcing him to retire after just three laps. At the Japanese Grand Prix, Grosjean qualified 18th, which he blamed on rain throughout practice preventing him from fully learning the demanding Suzuka Circuit, which he had never driven on before. He was promoted to 17th due to Timo Glock being unable to start the race. He was unable to make progress in the race, finishing 16th after strugling with understeer throughout the race on the unfamiliar circuit. At the Brazilian Grand Prix, Grosjean suffered an accident in practice, although he escaped unhurt. He qualified 13th in his repaired car, gained positions at the start, but then slipped back down to 13th after complaining of grip and tyre temperature problems, his best result of the season. At the season ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Grosjean qualified 19th, and finished 18th and last, again complaining of brake problems during the race. He said afterwards that he had "learnt an enormous amount this year, especially being team mate to Fernando". After the end of the season news reports had doubts that Grosjean would keep his seat into 2010, On 31 January 2010 Renault confirmed that Grosjean's former GP2 team mate at the Addax Team, Vitaly Petrov would be the team's second driver alongside Robert Kubica for the 2010 season leaving Grosjean without a Formula One drive for 2010. However in September 2010, it was confirmed by tyre manufacturer Pirelli that Grosjean would complete a test for the company in anticipation for their return to supplying tyres to the F1 grid in 2011. Grosjean replaced Nick Heidfeld, who left his testing duties to take up a race seat at Sauber.^[16]

Sportscars

Grosjean driving a Ford GT at Silverstone

After leaving Formula One, Grosjean became involved in sportscar racing. In March 2010, Grosjean secured a drive in the inaugural FIA GT1 World Championship, driving a Ford GT1 for the Matech Competition team alongside German driver Thomas Mutsch.^[17] The pairing won the opening Championship Race of the season in Abu Dhabi and added a second victory at Brno in May to lead the standings after the first three rounds of the season.^[18]

In June 2010, Grosjean made his debut in the famous Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race, sharing a Ford GT1 with Mutsch and Jonathan Hirschi. After qualifying third in the LMGT1 class, they were forced to retire from the race after 171 laps.^[19]

Auto GP

In June 2010, Grosjean made a return to single-seaters, racing for the DAMS team in the third round of the Auto GP season at Spa-Francorchamps.^[20] After dominating practice and taking pole position, he won the feature race before finishing second to Carlos Iaconelli in the sprint event.^[21] Over the course of the weekend, Grosjean accumulated 18 points out of a possible 19 on offer and took away €80,000 prize money as the event's top points scorer. He went on to win three more races to take the title at Monza 16 points ahead of second place man Edoardo Piscopo.

Return to GP2

On 20 July 2010, Grosjean announced that he would return to GP2 with the DAMS team. He replaced the then Renault test driver Jérôme d'Ambrosio for the German round of the championship.^[22] He later substituted for D'Ambrosio's injured team-mate, Ho-Pin Tung, from the Belgian round onwards (despite Tung recovering and returning to the series with a different team), finishing 3rd in Belgium and Abu Dhabi to take fourteenth place in the drivers' standings, only two positions behind D'Ambrosio.^[23]

Grosjean won the 2011 GP2 Asia Series and GP2 Series championships on his full-time return to the category.

Grosjean returned to GP2 full-time with DAMS for the 2011 GP2 Series and 2011 GP2 Asia Series seasons.^[24] He took two pole positions and one race victory to win the Asia Series by six points from Jules Bianchi, and also won the first race of the main series to lead that championship as well. He lost the championship lead to Giedo van der Garde, after the second round of the series, after an event which was hampered by a disqualification due to a technical infringement,^[25] but regained it again the following week at Monaco, scoring points in both races despite starting from last place on the grid. After scoring four further wins as part of a mid-season run that included six consecutive podium finishes, he pulled clear of his pursuers and clinched the championship at the penultimate round at Spa-Francorchamps.

Return to F1

Grosjean driving for Lotus at the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix.

At the start of 2011, Grosjean returned to the newly branded Lotus Renault GP team as one of five test drivers along with Bruno Senna, Ho-Pin Tung, Jan Charouz and Fairuz Fauzy. Lotus Renault had planned to run Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov throughout 2011 but Kubica had a horrific rally accident and was unable to drive during 2011. Former BMW Sauber team mate Nick Heidfeld replaced Kubica for the first 11 races before himself being replaced by Senna from the Belgian Grand Prix onwards. In late October 2011, Lotus Renault announced that Grosjean would drive in the Friday practice session in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (replacing Senna) and the Brazilian Grand Prix (replacing Petrov).

Lotus : (2012–)

On 9 December 2011, it was announced that Grosjean would make his comeback to Formula One in 2012, taking the second seat at the newly renamed Lotus F1 Team (formerly Renault, the team that Grosjean raced with in 2009) alongside 2007 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen.

At the Australian Grand Prix, Grosjean set the second fastest time in the final free practice session,^[26] and while team-mate Räikkönen was eliminated in the first part of qualifying, Grosjean made it into the top ten – for the first time, as his previous best was twelfth place^[27] – and ultimately qualified in third position.^[28] He fell to sixth at the start and retired on the second lap after a collison with Pastor Maldonado,^[29] which broke his right-front suspension. At the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix he finished third, collecting his first Formula One podium and the first for a French driver since Jean Alesi at the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix ^[30] In Spain Grosjean started third, finished fourth and set his first fastest lap in Formula One; the first for a French driver since Jean Alesi at the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix.

Personal life

Apart from being a racing driver, Grosjean has a job at a bank in his home town Geneva.^[31] He is now engaged to TF1's Motorsport reporter Marion Jolles. ^[32]

Racing record

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series record

(key)

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula One results

(key)

* Season in progress.

Complete GT1 World Championship results

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Class	No	Tyres	Car	Team	Co-Drivers	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2010	LMGT1	60	M	Ford GT1 Ford 5.3L V8	Matech Competition	Thomas Mutsch Jonathan Hirschi	171	DNF	DNF

Complete Auto GP results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

References

External links

• Official website
• Romain Grosjean on Twitter
• Romain Grosjean at the Internet Movie Database

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Romain Grosjean

v t e  Lotus F1 Team Team Principal: Éric Boullier Personnel: James Allison · Gerard Lopez  · Alan Permane Race drivers: 9. Kimi Räikkönen · 10. Romain Grosjean Test drivers: Jérôme d'Ambrosio Formula One Cars: E20