Pit Chat: Does anybody like Romain Grosjean?

Mark Scott
Lap 1 retirement made Grosjean want to punch walls.

Romain Grosjean

There is no love for Romain Grosjean at his home Grand Prix, plus more embarrassment for Ferrari and a new Kimi Raikkonen has emerged.

Here are the best and worst bits from a rather dull French Grand Prix weekend…

And first…

Spice up your life

We feared the week had already peaked before teams even stepped foot in France as our eyes were treated to seeing Bernie Ecclestone and Dr Helmut Marko wearing Spice Girls merch.

What makes it even better is that Christian Horner confirmed they were wearing knock-off t-shirts.

And it would be very rude of us not to remind you all of this Spice Boys tribute from last season…

Lando Norris fan club

It’s quite depressing when you find out Lando Norris wasn’t even born when the Spice Girls were at the forefront of the Britpop era.

We won’t hold it against him though. He’s been an excellent addition to grid already…and that was even before he nicked Carlos Sainz’s phone.

Whilst we all have gripes and moans about Formula 1 at the moment, it’s important to remind ourselves that drivers like Lando are still inspiring the young ones…

Just for the record: Norris wants one of those boxes and not a four-year-old son.

Norris wasn’t just on great form on the track, either. Here is some overwhelming evidence from his excellent qualifying run.

(We are also big fans of George Russell’s interruption; will have to click the tweet for this one)

Speaking of the SkyPad…

Just what on earth were Ferrari thinking including Karun Chandhok’s analysis as part of their “overhwhelming” evidence to try and get Sebastian Vettel’s five-second penalty from Canada overturned?

Sure, it’s a really good, detailed look at the incident. But it’s all subjective!

Although Karun is clearly not aware of the ‘no win, no fee’ disclaimer…

And after all the debate and controversy surrounding five-second penalties recently. We could not help but laugh at seeing this in F3 over the weekend.

Given the amount of backlash the FIA has received from all corners recently, they probably wish they had done the same in Canada.

At least it’s not as bad as it is in Formula E for the FIA. They just have arguments for all to see. This was after the FIA decided on a race restart when drivers gained a massive advantage using an escape road to avoid an on-track blockage.

A new Kimi?

Seeing as we’ve dipped into F3, we have to say we are very excited about the prospect of a new Kimi Raikkonen climbing up through the ranks. Step forward Juri Vips.

And Kimi didn’t need to tell us why he puts earphones in on the drivers’ parade, but also good to have that confirmation…

Everybody hates Romain

Whilst everyone loves Kimi, it seems not everyone loves Romain Grosjean.

Ricciardo was struggling to remember him…

Verstappen absolutely shot down Grosjean’s claim that karting was more difficult than Formula 1…

“That’s bullshit to me. We are now so much faster than we’ve been in previous years. I don’t understand where this is coming from.

“What Grosjean said, I don’t understand at all. With karting you use very different muscle groups.

“If I would go karting now, after 20 or 30 laps I would also be completely messed up. While when I was 15, I could drive 300 laps in one day and had no problems at all.

“Does that mean that I am not as strong as when I was 15? No, not at all. You just use very different muscles. You ask a lot more from your forearms.

“It makes no sense at all to make that comparison. Look, if you would put mates of mine who are still karting in a racing car, they wouldn’t feel their necks the next day, while they drive 300,000 laps a year in a kart. So I think this is a very strange comparison.”

And, perhaps saddest of all, Haas did not even give Grosjean the upgrade available to one of their drivers. Even though it was his home race.

“I’m a bit gutted that I don’t have it for my home race,” Grosjean said.

“I think it’s a massive gain here – so, already the car is not fast, but when you don’t have it, it just makes it harder.”

Poor Romain.

Romain Grosjean

Any other business

Things may not be going too well for Pierre Gasly this season, but he still has a smile on his face…and jokes, especially when it comes to naming Max’s best mates.

But tweet of the weekend belongs to…

And part of Valtteri Bottas’ regression to V1 can only be explained by his sickening decision to mix coffee with chewing gum. Yuck.

Stick to just the coffee, Valtteri, and you’ll be back fighting right at the top in no time. We hope…

Last word.

Can it really be anything else?

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Romain Grosjean

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