Former Formula 1 champion Mario Andretti praised IndyCar rookie Romain Grosjean after his first full season in the series, and said he has caught a lot of people’s attention.
In 2020, Grosjean finally ended a career that spanned 10 years in the top flight (9 full seasons and one part season in 2009) and moved to IndyCar with Dale Coyne Racing. And it seems the Frenchman did enough in his debut season at IndyCar to convince Michael Andretti to sign him for a two-year contract with Andretti Autosport from 2022.
Commenting on Grosjean’s IndyCar debut, Michael Andretti’s father and 1978 F1 champion Mario believes the ex-F1 racer has a bright future there.
Speaking to RacingNews365.com, Andretti explained why he thinks Grosjean did well in his rookie season at IndyCar.
“IndyCar was more of a spec series, it’s a spec series, [and] it gives individuals a different feeling that comes from Formula 1, ”he said. “In Formula 1 you have no chance of achieving really good results unless you play in one of the three best teams.”
Andretti continued: “But you can see that Romain has embraced it because he has the feeling that he has the same car as all the regulars who have scored. He immediately feels competitive and that gives you a big boost in confidence. “
It goes without saying that Grosjean’s F1 career was a case of “what could have been” when he entered the premier league with Renault F1 (replacing Nelson Piquet Jr.) in mid-2009 but out at the end of the year Deficiency again gave up on performance.
He later returned to F1 with Lotus F1 for 4 years in 2012, where he showed some flashes of the promised speed that put him in the first place on the F1 radar but never constant. Then there were those high profile falls that resulted in a zero race ban for the 2015 Italian Grand Prix after his infamous first lap at Spa this year.
He spent the years at Haas F1 from 2016 to 2020 after starting out promisingly in his first year with the American team but later falling into continual decline until he ended his F1 career with a fiery crash in Bahrain in 2020, the The Frenchman was lucky enough to go away.
However, Andretti Sr. believes that despite his lackluster F1 career, Grosjean has what it takes to be successful in IndyCar.
“I’m not surprised at how well he went because when you look back on Romain’s career he’s a force to be reckoned with, no question about it,” he admitted.
“To be honest, in IndyCar you can have a chance of winning anywhere in the field.”
Andretti then said, “He’s got a lot of people’s attention, no question about it.
“He’s going to be a player. I think he will enjoy this chapter of his career, ”he concluded.
In his first IndyCar season, Grosjean finished 15th overall in the Drivers’ Championship and achieved one pole position, six top ten finishes and four top five finishes, including two races this season on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course best second place of his career. .
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