Romain Grosjean – a 10-time podium finisher in Formula 1 – was expected to excel when he switched to Andretti Autosport last year. He had shown great promise with minnow team Dale Coyne Racing after crossing the Atlantic in 2021. But he lies 13th in points right now, exactly where he ended up in last year’s standings – not what he nor team owner Michael Andretti signed up for.
Also, the fact he scored as many podiums in his maiden season with Coyne (when he wasn’t doing most of the ovals) as he has in one and a half seasons with the powerhouse of Andretti makes for uncomfortable reading too.
Two poles this year, however, have shown the speed is there – and back-to-back runner-up finishes at Long Beach and Barber looked a surefire certainty for a contract extension. Since then, there have been three crashes and two very messy weekends in Road America and Mid-Ohio, tracks where you’d expect him to be running right at the front.
His latest race exit, when the steering wheel whipped out of his hands over the bumps at Toronto, sent him into the wall once again.
“When I was coming around that turn I just lost the steering wheel,” he rued. “It was a difficult handling recovery to make, and I lost the steering wheel in an attempt to manoeuver it.”
He added: “We’ll just have to move forward from here and focus on the next one” – a comment that you could cut and paste on many of his post-race comments this year.
Marcus Ericsson’s situation is vastly different, even though he’s coming off his two worst finishes of the year.
Source: Autosport