Grosjean wants Renault return ‘when we can be champions’

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In the round-up: Romain Grosjean said a return to Renault would be “lovely” – when the team is capable of winning the world championship.

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Christopher names five drivers he wants to see in F1 next year:

Charles Leclerc is a no-brainer. He is the most complete driver I have witnessed since I started following F2/GP2 some nine or ten years ago.

Felix Rosenqvist is one of the big talents to never reach F1. I think his future lies in USA, but I wish it was at Formula One.

Antonio Giovinazzi impressed me in Australia for Sauber. Yes, his immaturity shone through in China and then again at Hungaroring, but he will learn. When he does, he’ll be very fast indeed.

Andre Lotterer is too good to not be in F1. Just look at the number of points he’s got on his superlicence.

Joel Eriksson is in his second F3 season and is a very strong driver indeed. I’d rather see him at Sauber than that Gustav Malja or Nobuharu Matsushita, none of which seem destined for greatness.
Christopher (@Chrischrill)

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48 comments on “Grosjean wants Renault return ‘when we can be champions’”

  1. Ha, this Romain does not stop surprising me. He lives in a world where he is a top driver wanted for all the teams. I doubt they want to listen your excuses and complaints again.

    1. Honestly, Romain’s best shot at landing a championship winning Renault was if he stuck with them through the difficult times to finally get a season where he’s competing for the WDC. Even then, he would probably be paired against a top tier driver who has experience of fighting for a WDC.

      If Renault were to suddenly become favourites, unfortunately, Romain would not be on their shopping list. I think Romain needs to focus on beating Kevin more convincingly this season and fix his never ending brakes saga before dreaming of WDCs.

    2. Romain apply the brakes on your tongue

    3. True that,

      Seriously saying something like that is like “Yeah let Hulk and Kubica develop the car and make it a championship winning one, then in 2019 when it is ready I ll jump in the race seat thank you very much.”

      The wrong notes being played here Romain !

      1. @redbullf1, I agree that his comments in that interview really do not present a good impression, and not just with respect to Renault – it also makes it sound as if he has a lack of confidence in Haas’s ability to move up the field in the future, which is hardly going to endear him to the team either.

  2. I can’t help but think Grojean has already missed the Renault boat.
    I would love to see Kubica in that car and take the team to victory lane once again. Now that’d be a fairly tale.

  3. Neil (@neilosjames)
    8th August 2017, 1:50

    I think Grosjean very much missed the Renault boat… and that boat is now halfway around the world, steaming indifferently away in the general direction of about half a dozen other drivers, with little interest in heading back to pick him up.

  4. Dream on, Roman!

  5. LMP1 has imploded because they allowed manufactures to dictate the rules

    That’s been the case for the past 50 years, it’s a cycle.
    On Cotd, can’t agree on Felix, Leclerc is great in f2 but I don’t take that form for granted, he’s done some FP’s but he never showed anything special, if we talk about someone that good in f2 he must have something explosive to back it up, Giovinazzi’s speed on fp’s has been incredible, he’s immediately on top of the car and over it. Andre Lotterer and other older drivers were on my list as well, perhaps Ishiura, Hartley, Pagenaud.

    1. I don’t think LeClerc did any FP sessions this season. He was there for the test in Hungary just as the other drivers were. He topped the sheets but the usual caveat applies. And I am not sure what he can do to surprise people in FP. No one knows what the program is and considering that his name is on the lips of many people in the paddock, he must be doing something right.

      Giovinazzi needs to stop crashing first before we can get to see what he is made of. These are not some overtake moves gone wrong but rookie mistakes. The China GP weekend was miserable.

      1. Leclerc deliberately isn’t doing any FPs this season, as he preferred to focus on winning the F2 title rather than keep switching back and forth between series on the same weekend (as he did in 2016 when combining FPs and GP3) – something he thinks slowed him down a little last year.

    2. It would nice to dream of Lotterer in F1, in a proper car. Since he’s going to be out of a job in about a year and a half, who knows?

    3. Simon (@weeniebeenie)
      8th August 2017, 18:28

      @peartree are you seriously comparing Free Practice results to actual race results? Have you actually watched Leclerc’s performances in the lower formula. He’s not just fast, he has great racecraft and really knows when best to make moves. Everyone in the paddock is massively impressed with him for good reason.

      Being ‘fast’ in FP means nothing. In real sessions, where it matters, Gio made many mistakes.

      1. @evered7 Agreed, but Max did impress in FP back in 2014, I remember his suzuka FP session quite vividly. I have no faith in GP2/F2 no more. LeClercs team must be doing something right too… disqualified in qualy… it reminds me that situation when Magnussen’s DAMS car had some mysterious paint on the rear wing. Mag another driver that turned out below average.
        @weeniebeenie Verstappen was on JEV’s pace in FP, that was what sealed his seat for STR, his father strongly advised Max to impress in FP, it’s the only time you can have a true comparison. Palmer is a gp2 champion, so is Vandoorne they haven’t set the world alight, it’s not like they were anything like some past GP2 champions, like Lewis or Hamilton and others.

        1. @peartree Didn’t login to F1F for sometime now and missed your post. If LeClerc’s team are indeed messing about the car, it should reflect on his teammate’s performance as well. But you can see where he is currently.

          Also the current talent in Sauber isn’t too exciting to not be able to replace by a couple of promising youngsters. Plus the Ferrari deal almost makes me believe it will be LeClerc in one of the seats next year.

  6. If someone deserves a Renault wining car is Hulkenberg. I prefer Hulk+Perez or Hulk+Sainz than Grosjean.

  7. Robert McKay
    8th August 2017, 6:35

    With Ferrari and Renault already in the bag, Grosjean might as well complete the set and say how nice it would be to win championships with Mercedes and Red Bull. And if he wants to hedge his bets he could also speak nicely about Mclaren and Williams.

  8. You all forget the french connection!

    French people love their own – wich increases the chances to see GRO at Renault

    1. Yeah the same has been said a million time for most of the team, and yet no German in Merc, no Italianbin Ferrari and no French in that Renault… this is a boring troll at the end. Sainz and Ocon are definitely on Renault’a short list and i am pretty sure above Gro in the pecking order. If Sainz got the seat it will becaus of his talent, but i presume Ocon will purely be because of his nationality?

      1. no German in Merc, no Italianbin Ferrari and no French in that Renault…

        … no Italian at STR; no Austrian at RBR; no Brit at WIL or MCL; no Swiss at SAU; no Indian (or even Asian) at SFI; no American at Haas.

        Maybe they all forgot the Country Connection and in 2018 it will be:
        VET & HUL at Mercedes
        HAM & PAL at Williams
        GRO & OCO at Renault
        PER & STR at Haas as the North American Team
        Mag & ERI at SAS (Sauber As Scandinavian) team
        RIC & MAS at Force India as the Southern Hemisphere power house.
        GIO 2x at Ferrari (he needs two cars as he tends to crash them in practice)
        KVY & BOT at RBR (I expect Russia to have invaded Finland and Austria by then)
        VER & VAN at McLaren (after the McLaren family buy-out, and then the Low Countries re-annexing New Zealand)
        GIO also at STR (if he runs out of cars at Ferrari)

    2. @Nunu The French are not particularly more nationalistic than any other country. Stereotypes, prejudice and assumptions also seem to be a trans-national feature.

      1. @nickfrog, furthermore, given that the team is based in the UK and most of the senior management is British rather than French, I’d doubt that French nationalism would be that much of a factor.

        Even if they did want a French driver, they wouldn’t have to go for Grosjean either – they could always make a bid for Ocon (they already have an idea of his capabilities after he drove for them in a few free practise sessions in 2016, and there had been talk in the off season that they did weigh up trying to buy him out of his contract with Mercedes).

    3. The theory, in any case, forgets that Romain has already driven for Renault. If they wanted him back, I think we’d have heard about it by now.

      What strikes me most about this, though, is that Romain doesn’t seem to see his future as being at Haas. Yes, everyone dreams of being in a better team, but I see no signs at present that Renault is a better team. This doesn’t do my feelings about Romain and Haas staying together any good – and I’m not sure who in F1 takes Romain in that situation. Too many dancers and not enough seats in this particular round of musical chairs.

      1. Renault is definitely yhe better team compared to Haas. Let’s not forget, Renault only started this project last year, and is still a team that is in build-up phase. However, they are making big progress. In Silverstone and Budapest they were the fourth team. Hulkenberg finished 6th in England and qualified 7th in Hungary (could have finished 6th there too, if not for his penalty and awful pitstop). Renault is moving forward, and has all resources of a top team. Haas doesn’t.

  9. Hasegawa needs to keep a lid on his comments. He announced in pre season that they were going to match the performance of the Ferrari 2016 unit, and they ended up matching the performance of the Honda 2015 power unit… only with worse reliability.

    I think the best thing for Honda to do from a PR perspective is to just go in to hiding until they actually achieve something that shows they belong in this sport.

    1. Sorry *match the performance of the Mercedes 2016 unit

    2. I think it may have mercedes 2016 performance mow, but the bar is a moving target.

    3. @todfod,
      I’m sure Honda doesn’t want to make much public statements before showing up with a competitive PU. But there is just too much media attention everywhere, because most of us are way too eager to get any update. And if there’s no information available, media will make up stories by filling in the gaps. Remember Pascal Wehrlein’s injury & subsequent opinions/columns & speculation in the media?

      1. @praxis

        Agree about the media coverage, but all Hasegawa has to do is give generic answers like they’re improving and working on it. By making claims that we are better than Renault… our deployment is as good as Mercedes.. we’ll match the performance of the leaders…etc.

        They just come across as fools when they can’t design an oil tank properly, have no idea of how to simulate vibrations on a dyno and run through 10 power units before the season even starts.

    4. I agree, it would be much better for Honda to not raise our hopes with hypothetical scenarios in media conferences, rather they should show their performance on the racing track.

  10. One thing i just noticed watching hungary test videos on youtube, kubica did a lot of practise starts… nnowo one talked about this yet but why would he be practising so many starts if there isnt a race drive coming up? dream on romain.

    1. It makes sense – the probability that there’ll be a vacancy in the next 18 months is close to 100%, Kubica is aiming to be first on the list and in Renault’s eyes, their next driver was always going to be Kubica or Rowland (though I’m not sure why Rowland wasn’t at the test).

  11. Anyone noticed Hulk put a picture of MAG in his raceseat – so he could sit with his balls on his face… this was done in a dutch showrace yestoday …. is this guy a complete idiot? I used to like this guy and still admire his racing skills, but he seems disturbed and foolish now. Lost me as a fan…

      1. I really think it is nice to see some emotion. Magnussen instead of saying sorry, told him to go and lick balls. So Hulk then makes him “kiss his butt” in a demo run for fans. To me that just adds a bit to the show and it nicely fills the summer season with some banter.

    1. @Nunu Don’t take it too seriously!

    2. Yeezy918 (@)
      8th August 2017, 9:32

      The whole thing has stemmed from Magnussen acting like a child on and off track. I used to really like K Mag but since he grew some facial hair he seems to be going through an angry teen phase of some sort.

  12. Haha, Hulk is genius. A sort of guy who you want to befriend.

  13. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
    8th August 2017, 10:02

    If this makes sense, I only think Grosjean is a good driver when his car is decent. Most times the car was poor last year, Gutierrez beat him. This actually resulted in Gutierrez finishing ahead of Grosjean more often than not. It just seemed that when the car was competitive, Grosjean did look to usually get the max out of it. But I honestly think he is one of the worse drivers on the grid when his car isn’t at it’s best as Guttierez often managed to handle the car better than him in these situations with less complaining and spinning off. I don’t think it was just Grosjean with all the issues. The problem with Gutierrez was he didn’t manage to score points when the car was good. That is no good at all. Although he did have to retire in the 2 races where the car was clearly at the most competitive. And these 2 races were where Grosjean scored well over 60% of the teams points. I am certain Gutierrez will have managed a few over these 2 at leased.

    I’m not certain if Grosjean will be good enough for a top team. Possibly, but we have only seen a few good performances from in the last few years.

    1. ‘Goldilocks driver’

  14. Something strange happened to RG. After he got over his desperate 1st lap lunges he showed genuine pace and was, at least in my book, true WDC material. It seems he has stood still while the rest of the pack steamed past and left him in their brake dust..

    1. and left him in their brake dust..

      Don’t mention Romain and breaks in the same sentence, bad juju.

  15. I hope hulk will be the next renault driver champion

  16. If Romain wants to be a hero , he should seriously consider getting into Renault and help them in their hard times.

    I don’t think he is too passionate about them, hence this comment. I’m pretty sure the guys at Renault are going ” yeah shut the door on this guy”

  17. Michael Brown (@)
    8th August 2017, 22:42

    And Hulkenberg is going to move over to let Grosjean reap the spoils?

  18. Evil Homer (@)
    9th August 2017, 15:25

    Romain took this path as a short way to Ferrari.
    The Hulk took another path and that didn’t work either (yet)
    Hoped to see these two in stronger drives but looks like it most likely wont happen!
    But yes, Romain may stop thinking he is on the top teams thoughts now as it seems that time has gone by.

  19. The only way Grosjean is going to drive a Renault is if he goes and buys one from the showroom.

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