Romain Grosjean Sheds Light on Embarrassing Pit Lane Spin in Practice

Published 07/13/2019, 7:48 AM EDT

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Haas driver Romain Grosjean was on the receiving end of an embarrassing on-track moment. The French driver downplayed his bizarre pit-lane crash when the first practice session kicked off at the British Grand Prix.

Ahead of the weekend, the Haas F1 team experimented with Grosjean’s car, even opting for a daring move. In other words, they reverted back to the Australian GP specification, which they deemed was far quicker. This was because, Romain Grosjean felt uncomfortable ever since Haas introduced a major upgrade at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Unfortunately, his hopes of extracting maximum potential from the swapped car took a hit. Romain Grosjean lost control on exit from the pit-lane, spun and crashed into a wall. The impact broke his front wing and had to limp around the track before returning to the pit-lane.

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When he returned to the circuit after 40 minutes of repairs, he spun on his first flying lap with the new specification on a day which saw numerous drivers — including five-time world champion Lewis Hamilton — struggle to keep their cars on the newly-resurfaced Silverstone tarmac.

Speaking of the faux pas, Romain Grosjean said, “[I had] Cold tyres, and when I removed the pitlane limiter, the car spun. It was a bit of an awkward moment, let’s say!”

“It’s life. We laughed about it, I think that’s what you should do. It didn’t annoy us too much for the remainder of the day.”

With regard to the other spin, he said: “Turn 6 was a bit dirty and bumpy and just difficult. New tarmac always brings some new and different type of grip, it got better in the afternoon but it was definitely a place where it was a bit tricky.

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“It was my first lap and I didn’t really know what to expect. The grip was outstanding in Turn 3 and 4 and I was expecting the same in Turn 6 and it wasn’t.”

The good news for Romain Grosjean is that early signs from the new set-up have been positive.

“The feeling is very good in the car — much better than it was recently, which is great. I think the performance is not there [yet], which we can expect, especially with the wind, the wind is a big factor in our whole package.

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“The feeling is really good so we need to analyse everything we can to ensure we can actually transfer that feeling into the new package and then into performance.”

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Written by:

Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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