Romain Grosjean will still test for Mercedes at some point after his first round was postponed last year when the date of the French Grand Prix changed.
The Frenchman was promised a test by Toto Wolff following his horrendous crash at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix in what turned out to be the final F1 race of his career, with Wolff keen for Grosjean to have a more positive final memory of the F1 machines has. However, after a date was arranged at his home race at Paul Ricard, a date change meant Grosjean was unable to conduct the test and it was postponed, but the now Andretti IndyCar driver says it’s still in the pipeline.
“I sent a message to Toto in Abu Dhabi,” Grosjean said. “Well I went away for a few weeks, a few weeks went by and then I texted Toto and he replied. He started (by saying) “Thank you,” and then the last sentence was, “We’ve got to put you in that car this year.” Yes, it’s still in the cards.
“There were a few things last year that didn’t make it easy. I can’t go to the French Grand Prix this year because we’re going to Iowa on the same weekend. But in any case, Mercedes is interested. I really want to do it even if my neck is going to die because I lost some of the muscle there! You can ask Pato (O’Ward) how it was. But yeah, I mean we still want to do it and if it happens great, but it’s just… the focus now is on winning races with Andretti.”
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And the test will go ahead, although Grosjean disagrees with Mercedes’ stance on the last-lap controversy in Abu Dhabi, as he believes race director Michael Masi made the right decisions to exit a shootout between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.
“I loved it. It was exciting. My heart was pumping like hell and I think it’s great that two cars fought for the championship over one lap.
“I think the misconception is to think that the world championship was one round. It was 22 grands prix and if you look at the whole season you know Max had a puncture in Baku, Valtteri Bottas crashed in Hungary at Verstappen, her (collision) at the Silverstone race. I think in the end if we look at how many points Verstappen lost, not necessarily through his fault, he was the one who deserved the championship more.
“At the Abu Dhabi race, Lewis deserved the championship more; He was unlucky on the last lap. But as a race fan I loved that last lap and it was super exciting to watch.
“There are a few ways to see (the target). It would have been very odd not to lap those cars and have Lewis first and then Max four cars behind a lap for the World Championship. On the other hand, it definitely wasn’t a big decision for Lewis, but as a TV fan, as a viewer, for the sport, I think Michael Masi made the right decision.
“I don’t think it would have been nice to end the championship under the safety car. It wouldn’t have been nice if the guys were separated on the track – first and second separated by a couple of cars… I thought it was so cool to bring these two guys together.”
