Grosjean on the verge of tears after Interlagos
It is a desperate Romain Grosjean who confided to Canal+ at the end of the race after another complicated race.
While he did everything possible in qualifying to place his Haas in 7th position, Romain Grosjean’s race clearly did not go as he had hoped. Losing two positions to Charles Leclerc and Kimi Raikonnen in the early laps, the Franco-Swiss driver was unable to regain them.
13th at the finish, there was certainly more to be achieved given all the race incidents that occurred. But then why did Haas fail to capitalize on the strong performance from Saturday?
The fault was primarily due to a very poor race pace compared to that in qualifying. The VF19 doesn’t seem to handle the tires well, especially when it’s as hot as it was this Sunday at Interlagos. Haas’s second mistake was not having their driver pit during the first safety car. Grosjean lost a lot of positions. Attempting to fix this, his team had him pit during the second safety car, but the damage was already done. This strategic error caused him to finish behind Kevin Magnussen, even though the Dane had collided with Daniel Ricciardo and started behind him on the grid.
« We didn’t have luck. We were having the race of our lives, fighting for seventh position with a car that wasn’t supposed to do that. We were doing an outstanding job, and the safety car came out at the wrong time for us. The tires upon resumption were just worn out from a long stint. We knew we could go to the end, but then Sainz pushed me hard in the second corner. I’m not very happy about that. We pushed the car to the limit today; it wasn’t our day. »
Currently, Romain Grosjean holds a distant 17th position in the drivers’ championship, having scored only 8 points. It should be noted that his last Top 10 finish was in July during the German Grand Prix, where he finished the race in 7th position. After that race, neither of the two Haas cars managed to score points, leaving them only 9th in the constructors’ championship with almost no chance of improving. A nightmare 2019 season in summary for the Franco-Swiss driver who now eagerly awaits 2020, and his interview with Canal+ where he was on the verge of tears confirms his desire to move on to next year.
I’m really trying not to swear but what a **** year. Everything is going wrong. Yet I’m shopping for my life!
#BrazilGP 🇧🇷 #F1
Romain dépité “Quelle année de M….”Le direct ➡ https://t.co/pktx34VBLF
▶️ https://t.co/7plkVVV12v pic.twitter.com/RQmjBvUSx0
— CANAL+ F1® (@CanalplusF1) November 17, 2019
