Former Formula 1 driver struggling to find consistency in his second year in NTT IndyCar Series.
- Romain Grosjean finished 15th in the 2021 NTT IndyCar standings in his rookie year, including earning three podiums and one pole.
- His sophomore season in the series, and his first with Andretti Autosport, has been challenging, to say the least.
- When asked about the differences between F1 and IndyCar, Grosjean immediately pointed to one thing.
It hasn’t exactly been the year Romain Grosjean envisioned when he moved to Andretti Autosport for the 2022 IndyCar season.
After spending 2021, his first year in IndyCar, with Dale Coyne Racing, the Swiss-French former Formula 1 driver took over the No. 28 DHL Honda from Ryan Hunter-Reay, whose contract was not renewed after last season.
Grosjean finished 15th in the standings in his rookie year, including earning three podiums and one pole. But his sophomore season in the series, and his first with Andretti, has been challenging, to say the least.
He comes into this weekend’s race at Toronto 14th in the standings, with just one podium thus far (second at Long Beach). There’s no question Grosjean has struggled with finishes of 17th or worse in five of the first nine races and just four finishes ending on the lead lap.
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Yet while Grosjean still has a chance at cracking the top 10 by the end of this season, he and his team are also looking and working ahead.
“Where we are right now is to focus on preparing for 2023,” Grosjean told Autoweek. “We’ve had to adjust to the new team. I believe the task is different from last year, and that’s something we’ve had to adjust to.
“We have not had exactly the performance that we wanted to, to be 100% honest. So we’ve been working hard on the car. I feel like now we’re getting somewhere with Olivier (Boisson), my engineer. We made some really good progress in Mid-Ohio and on the simulators we’ve done. So I’m kind of excited about that, that we’ve got somewhere. But we had to change a lot of the philosophy from what we used to run because we just feel like the car is a little bit different.”
Still, the transition from Coyne to Andretti “has been smooth,” Grosjean said. “The team has been really good at welcoming me and making us feel at home. So that’s been pretty good. The car is a little bit different this year, at least I feel that they are, and we’ve had to adjust, to change a few things that has taken a little bit of time. But we’re going somewhere that I’m happy with and excited that we’ve get so many races coming and we can try to do something cool.”
Romain Grosjean is still learning the ropes in the IndyCar Series.
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While Grosjean has 183 points thus far this season, he still is 138 points behind series leader and Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson. However, Grosjean is only 29 points out of the top 10 (Colton Herta is 10th with 212 points).
“What I’m going to do is to try to go race by race and do the best we can and see where that brings us later in the year,” Grosejan said. “But yeah, I think we’re a little too far behind yet to think about any good position.
“So we’re just about focusing every weekend on what we can do, try to do the best, and when we’re at Laguna Seca (the season finale), we’ll look where we are. But realistically, I think there’s very little chance to go for a championship.”
While IndyCar has eight races left on the schedule, the next five are likely to be brutal, the quintet of events coming within a 22-day span: July 17 (Toronto), July 23-24 (weekend doubleheader at Iowa), July 30 (Indianapolis road course), and August 7 (Nashville).
“It’s going to be quite something with all the races that we have until Laguna Seca,” Grosjean said. “I think it’s exciting that we get to race so many weekends in a row, but also it’s going to be tiring.
So we just want to make sure that we start with a good one in Toronto and then continue on in a positive way going towards the rest of the season.”
Before he came to IndyCar, Grosjean spent over nine seasons in Formula 1. His best season finish was seventh, coming in 2013 with the Lotus team.
When asked about the differences between F1 and IndyCar, Grosjean immediately pointed to one thing.
“The biggest difference really is that in IndyCar, everyone’s got the same car, while that’s not the case in Formula 1,” Grosjean said. “(F1 is) very different. And then you’ve got a lot of different tracks in IndyCar between ovals, straight courses and road courses. So you need to be good on all of those. I think those are really the biggest difference.
Romain Grosjean is 14th in the IndyCar points standings.
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It’s challenging and new. It’s very different coming from Europe. Ovals are definitely not something that we have (in F1). I don’t like to compare those because they are both very, very demanding and very competitive. Overall it’s definitely something that I’ve needed to adjust to quite a bit because I’ve never done it before. I’m starting to feel better on ovals, which is good. But yeah, Formula One is also super, super demanding and challenging and requires a very high level.”
IndyCar has seen several drivers come from F1, including Grosjean, Takuma Sato, Alexander Rossi, and Ericsson. But several current IndyCar drivers such as Colton Herta and Pato O’Ward have been mentioned as potentially leaving IndyCar and moving to F1 in the near future.
“Honestly, some of the IndyCar drivers are as good as some of the Formula 1 drivers.”
“Honestly, some of the IndyCar drivers are as good as some of the Formula 1 drivers,” Grosjean said. “I think in both championships, you’ve got some very, very talented drivers. There are guys in IndyCar that could definitely be up there in Formula 1.
“Colton (Herta) is testing right now in Formula 1, which is pretty cool. I think the biggest challenge for IndyCar drivers is the difference of mentality between the US and Formula 1. And I think that’s definitely something that could be a challenge. But the guys are very fast. Pato (O’Ward) is very fast, Colton is very fast. There’s really some good guys out there. But I feel that it’s more the mentality is the difference and that could be a bit more of a challenge.”
Grosjean and his family have adapted quite well to living in the US and have embraced its culture. They live in the Miami area and are literally neighbors with other notable race car drivers including Juan Pablo Montoya, Helio Castroneves, and Andretti teammate Devlin DeFrancesco.
“We feel at home being so far away from home,” said Grosjean, who hails from Geneva, Switzerland. “We don’t even speak the same language but we really do feel like we’re at home in the US. The welcome from the fans has been absolutely incredible. That’s what made us feel so good here. I love the mentality, really. I’ve made quite a bit of friends already in Miami. It is fun and I’ve really, really enjoyed it.”
As he prepares for this Sunday’s race in Toronto, Grosjean said any lingering hostility from the two bouts of contact he had with Rossi at Mid-Ohio has been settled.
“I called Alex just after Mid-Ohio and we had a chat—I think that was good,” Grosjean said of Rossi, who will be moving on from the team at the end of this season, heading to Arrow McLaren SP. “Obviously, it’s not a situation that we wanted to happen, and it’s definitely not a situation that we want to happen again, for sure.
“So we had a good chat and all is good. We go to Toronto and my goal is not to beat Alex—my goal is to be on pole and to beat everyone.”
As the interview concluded, Grosjean was asked if there is one particular race in the remaining eight events on the schedule that he is pointing to as having the best chance for a win or podium.
His answer was short, simple, and definitely to the point:
“Everywhere,” he laughed.
Keyword: Grosjean: 'Mentality' of F1 Will Be Biggest Challenge for Next IndyCar Driver in Formula 1