2019 Review – Romain Grosjean: A Season in Hell
The end of the year is approaching, and it's time to analyze the drivers' performances in 2019. Motors Inside offers you a look back at Romain Grosjean's season, one of the most challenging of his career with a car that didn't suit him.
What can be said about Romain Grosjean’s season other than it was a true ordeal for the Geneva native? Very early on, he realized that the new VF-19 was poorly conceived, and unfortunately, the course of the season proved him right.
Apart from the first race in Australia where the two Haas cars appeared as contenders for the 4th place in the championship, the other Grand Prix events were nothing but an ordeal for the Franco-Swiss driver. Obviously, aside from the erratic performances of his car, Grosjean also made his share of mistakes which almost cost him his place for 2020. The most glaring and embarrassing for the driver remained his spin at the exit of the pit lane at Silverstone during free practice.
Struggling to adapt to his incomprehensible single-seater, Grosjean decided mid-season to revert to its former specifications, abandoning the developments made up to that point… with little result in the end, as the Frenchman did not score a single point in the last 10 Grand Prix of the year.
His presence on the grid in 2020 was strongly questioned by his team, who were courted by Nico Hülkenberg, let go by Renault. But in the end, Günther Steiner and Gene Haas decided it was better to maintain stability in the driver lineup to focus on developing the next car and correcting the major flaws seen this year. Probably a wise decision that will allow Romain Grosjean to inevitably do better in 2020 to restore his reputation a bit.
