“AS A FORMULA ONE FAN I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN. AS A DRIVER, AND AS A
TEAM, IT’S GOING TO BE A LOT OF WORK BUT I’M REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO THE CHALLENGE.”
ROMAIN GROSJEAN
ROMAIN GROSJEAN Q&A
How would you sum up your season,
Romain?
It started pretty slowly, but by Bahrain we’d
developed the car more to suit my driving style
and we started to be good. There were one or
two technical issues but the car matured and
improved as the season went on and after the
summer break things got very exciting.
Was that just down to the car, or the
changes made to the tires?
It was really a normal step in development and
nailing the reliability, which we should have
gotten earlier in the year. In Bahrain I was third,
in Barcelona I was looking at the same but
suffered broken suspension, and in Monaco
I was super quick until I had an accident. We
were quick all year, pretty much, especially
with Kimi winning the first race in Australia. But
it took a few races for me to get the braking
how I wanted it, and our low downforce
package didn’t work well in Canada, Spa and
Monza. At the other tracks I think our car was
always there.
What was the highlight of your year?
There are a few. Japan was pretty cool, leading
at the beginning and fighting with the Red
Bulls. India was incredible, starting 17th and
finishing P3. And in Austin I finished second
which, to date, is my best ever result.
Entering your third season racing for
Lotus F1 Team you must now feel very
settled in the team…
I live very close to Enstone and have known
the team for many years. They’re like family
to me, I really like the guys and they do a very
good job.
In these last two years, did you learn a
lot from Kimi?
He was a good driver to have as a team-mate
because he’s very strong and quick. You want
a high benchmark so that you can improve
yourself. He’s got a lot of experience so it was
good for me to see what he was doing, and so
I took a lot from him. As a person, he’s Kimi!
I don’t think I actually know him better than
anyone else!
How do you think 2014 is going to
shape up?
It’s going to be really interesting with the new
regulations. As a Formula One fan I can’t wait
to see what’s going to happen. As a driver, and
as a team, it’s going to be a lot of work but I’m
really looking forward to the challenge.