Grosjean has the ‘key’, Steiner hopes he keeps it

Fighting for his Haas seat, Romain Grosjean reckons his Italian GP performance shows that he has found the “key”. Guenther Steiner hopes he doesn’t lose it.

Grosjean raced to sixth place in Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, scoring points at the end of an error-free weekend.

Although he was later disqualified that was through no fault of his own, rather the floor of his VF18 was found to be illegal.

Had the result stood it would have been Grosjean’s fourth successive top-ten showing, a marked improvement on his early season form which saw crash several times.

“I was not very proud of the start of the season, but I knew I would find the key,” he told Ekstra Bladet.

“Now I’m back to normal.”

His Haas boss really hopes he doesn’t lose that key again.

“I hope he doesn’t lose the key again,” Steiner said with a laugh.

“I’d better ask him where he saves it so I can find it when it’s needed. If it’s only a key, I can be very helpful. Maybe put a red string on it.”

“Joking aside, he has been racing for a long time and is very experienced. He knows how to handle himself. So if he says that, I hope that it works.

“This is how Romain works normally. We just need to make sure he does it all the time and avoids all these fluctuations.

“There are limits to how many of those you can do. But I think he is doing fine right now.”

While reports suggest it is just a matter of time before Haas confirm Kevin Magnussen, Grosjean’s seat is under threat from Ferrari protege Charles Leclerc.

Should Ferrari opt against promoting the Monaco driver, the rumour mill claims he could take Grosjean’s seat.