Grosjean: Car “significantly improved again”

2013 Canadian Grand Prix

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Romain Grosjean believes Lotus have made a significant step forward with their car.

Grosjean carries a ten-place grid penalty into the Canadian Grand Prix following his collision with Daniel Ricciardo in Monaco. But he believes there were “positives” in the last weekend as well:

“The positives are that we significantly improved the car again to make it more predictable over the weekend and that helped me a lot,” he said.

“I think we had the pace to be in the top three, but unfortunately we didn’t get the qualifying position we wanted and it’s almost impossible to move up the order in Monaco.”

Despite is penalty Grosjean hopes he can repeat his best-ever result of second in last year’s race at a track which, like Monaco, offers little room to make mistakes:

“I enjoy the sensation of being close to the walls; although as I learnt this year in Monaco I don’t enjoy the sensation of being too close to the walls,” he said.

“Montreal is different from Monaco as there are some long straights and big braking moments. The track surface can also present challenges as we’ve seen in past seasons, so it will be interesting to see what the grip level is like this year.”

Lotus’s trackside operations director Alan Permane said the team will make relatively minor changes to the car for the race, with a bigger update to follow at the next round:

“We have a revised aero package, with track specific front and rear wings as well as an update to the floor,” said Permane. “There aren’t too many changes for this race, but looking ahead to the subsequent Grand Prix we have a revised bodywork package for Silverstone.”

2013 Canadian Grand Prix

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Image © Lotus/LAT

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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19 comments on “Grosjean: Car “significantly improved again””

  1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    31st May 2013, 17:39

    The car, but not the driver

    1. Traverse (@)
      31st May 2013, 21:10

      Maybe Grosjean’s talent is so superior that human technology isn’t advanced enough to build a car that can support his unrivalled, superhuman driving abilities and as a result, he crashes more often than not…maybe…

      Think about it, even the greatest chefs would find it impossible to make the perfect omelette with rotten eggs…

      1. Yet Kimi Raikkonen is second in the championship and one of the main contenders this year in the same car.

      2. Dion (@infinitygc)
        31st May 2013, 21:35

        Grosjean is secretly Daft Punk’s reserve member.

        1. Grosjean’s up all night to get lucky

  2. Good luck showing you can get a positive out of being fast as well then Romain, so far it does not look great.

  3. Montréal is different from Monaco as there are some long straights and big braking moments.

    Unfortunately there are also plenty of walls for Grosjean to hit, although he did well there last year so hopefully he won’t have another disastrous weekend.

    1. Grosjean’s problem is not crashing into the walls, but into other drivers.

      1. @kingshark – It is actually both, looking at last weekend.

  4. Everything Grosjean says sounds childish, his voice and his wording. Ask your kid how is Monaco after he plays the track on the console, exactly the same feedback. Was the interview in English? I hope he sounds like an adult in French.

    1. Er…what? How is this childish? I don’t even hear his voice from this transcript, anyway.

  5. Lotus may well have made a step forward…But it’s never gonna be enough if Romain keeps crashing all the time… he is fast but very very inconsistent.. I think this is gonna be his last year in F1…

  6. He enjoy to be close the wall and it’s why he won the 2012 ROC.

  7. I enjoy the sensation of being close to the walls

    Does he also enjoy the sensation of being in the back of other cars?

    Seriously though, he needs a great result this weekend.

  8. I think this weekend is the perfect opportunity for him to get a great result. He can go into the race knowing he was strong last year, at a track where the bumpy surface will reward the Lotus’ kindness to it’s tyres and it’s decent straight-line speed. Of course however, between him and any kind of limelight, is his iron-man team mate.

  9. Unconfirmed sources suggest that the biggest improvement is a stronger monocoque to make future crashes easier on the driver..

  10. if by inproved he means they added bumpers around the car it sounds ok

  11. So significant a step forward that they’re into the car ahead?

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