Romain Grosjean has suggested other teams have managed him better than Haas after current boss Guenther Steiner said has been « very challenging » to work with at times.
Grosjean is leaving Haas at the end of the year, having raced with the team at every race since it joined F1 at the 2016 Australian Grand Prix. Grosjean and Steiner clashed on occasion, with incidents in 2019 notoriously caught on camera for Netflix’s Drive to Survive series.
Ahead of this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, Steiner paid tribute to what Grosjean has done for the team since he joined but admitted it’s not always been a straightforward relationship.
« Romain can be very challenging at moments but when you get him on the right day and the right time he was a very big asset to the team, » Steiner said. « I think we have to thank him as well what he did for us.
« We showed that we believed in him as we could have let him go after three years, after four years, but we kept him because sometimes he can be Romain, I call it being Romain, there is no word for it, which is tough to manage, but otherwise he was a great asset for the team and he will go into the history of Haas F1, he is a big part of it forever. »
Grosjean spoke to the media a few hours later and said any mistakes he has made at Haas have come from how hard he’s been pushing to move the team up the competitive order.
« I don’t want to go into too much detail, » Grosjean said when Steiner’s quote was read to him. « I think I’ve brought a fair bit to the team and I’ve had moments, yes, I’ve made mistakes – but who doesn’t?
« Also, when you have a poor car, you need to be able to drive to 105 percent to get anything good and when you drive to that level there is high chances you’re going to make mistakes.
« When you have a top car, you can drive at 99.8% and that means you’re more consistent. I’ve known both situations and that’s why I can say that.
« Am I difficult to manage? I don’t know. [But] some people did that very well with me in the past, so I guess it’s possible. »
Grosjean looks likely to move away from F1 next year. The Frenchman has already signalled an interest in Peugeot’s upcoming World Endurance Championship entry.
https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/30393799/grosjean-disagrees-steiner-suggestion-difficult-manage
